孟浩然 Meng Haoran 題大禹寺義公禪房 “Inscription on Venerable Yi's Chamber at Dafu Temple"

I am very excited to finally have a good classical Chinese-English dictionary, in the form of Paul W. Kroll's A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese. I've already started using it, as demonstrated by my translation of the Meng Haoran poem below. (More of Meng Haoran's poems can be found here.)

The translation is not one upon which I spent a great deal of time, which is likely obvious, but I wanted to share it before I call it a night. I may revise it in the future, but who knows; I kind of like the way it turned out.

The Chinese text of the poem comes from A Full Load of Moonlight: Chinese Chan Buddhist Poems, translated by Mary M.Y. Fung and David Lunde. Their English rendition of the poem served as a rough guide, but any errors in translation (and/or transcription) are entirely mine. I hope you enjoy it.

微臣
史大偉 D.A.S.

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孟浩然
題大禹寺義公禪房

義公習禪寂  結宇依空林
戶外一峰秀  階前眾壑深
夕陽連雨足  空翠落庭陰
看取蓮花淨  方知不染心

Meng Haoran
"Inscription on Venerable Yi's Chamber at Dafu Temple"

To practice Zen in silent solitude
Venerable Yi built a dwelling in an empty forest
exquisite mountain peak outside the door
multitude of deep ravines in front of the steps
last light of day melds with patter of rain
trickle of blue into the shady courtyard
if you see and grasp the pure lotus
just then you will know the spotless mind