小难题 | 汉诗英译

   小难题        孙启放

清末画家画雪地上的白兔

可简笔：

墨勾眼睛、兔唇；

耳朵尚未折叠，加些许

夫人胭脂盒里淡淡的粉红——

这还不够，必须要有的难题：

如何解决那一行脚印？

据说来自南书房；却拐弯去了

颐和园。墨和纸

维新不得守旧不得；

小白兔的路走了百日，步态

既决绝又蹒跚

工整不得，也潦草不得。

选自中国诗歌网·每日好诗

A Small Problem

by Sun Qifang

A late Qing Dynasty painter used simple strokes

to paint rabbits in the snow:

flicks for the eyes and the rabbits’ lips;

keeping the ears erect, and borrowing a dab of

pink from his lady’s rouge box —

But that’s not all, there was one more thing:

how does one take care of the footprints?

Supposedly they started from the Library; but veered

towards the Summer Palace. Ink on paper,

I shouldn’t do anything too radical, nor overly classical;

the little white rabbits took a hundred steps, their gaits

were resolute, but tottery at the same time.

The footprints must not be too neat nor too erratic.

孙启放，男，安徽含山人，安徽师范大学数学系毕业，现居合肥市。著有诗集《英雄、名士与美人》《皮相之惑》《伪古典》，随笔集《世界上的那点事》。

Translated by Duck Yard Lyricists

Duck Yard Lyricists is a group of devoted poetry lovers: Meifu Wang, Michael Soper, & Guy Hibbert.