恭喜發財! Happy lunar new year, folks! 2015 is the year of the Sheep (or the Goat, depending on your reading of 羊), which also happens to be my Chinese zodiac animal. For the occasion I've translated another Meng Haoran poem, which I chose because it was one of the first poems related to spring that I found in the sources I had at hand. As an admitted amateur and poetaster I think it's a decent enough poem, but there's definitely some argument as to its literary merit, and I can see how it might read as broad and sentimental.
Be that as it may, I had fun trying my hand at translating it. I imagined the poet in a sort of hibernation, aware of the change of season and its attendant goings-on but unwilling or unable to react- unless one counts reflection as a reaction, that is.
Anyway, I hope you dig it. 新年快樂!
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春曉
孟浩然
春眠不覺曉
處處聞啼鳥
夜來風雨聲
花落知多少
Spring Dawn
Meng Haoran
I sleep through the spring, oblivious to the dawn
everywhere I hear birds squawking
night comes, along with the sound of wind and rain
who knows how many blossoms fall?
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