Those canyons are too narrow to travel.
How will you make your way there, when
it’s a mere bird-path—a thousand miles
and gibbons howling all day and night?
We offer travel-spirits wine, then you’re
gone: Nü-lang Shrine, mountain forests
and beyond. But we still share a radiant
moon. And do you hear a nightjar there?
“Farewell to Yang, Who’s Leaving for Kuo-chou” by Wang Wei, from The Selected Poems of Wang Wei, translated by David Hinton, copyright © 2006 by David Hinton. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.