Woods
Reaching each root in sequence
the hidden water is silver-white
advancing in the way cogs catch onto cogs
Softly this hand-crafted news
reaches the fresh leaves
This short poem took rather a long time to translate, largely because we opted to stay as close to the original Chinese as possible and, as you’ll see if you take a look at the literal version prepared by Chenxin Jiang, the poem is written in condensed and idiosyncratic language with very singular imagery.
Woods
In order they reach every type of root
the hidden water it is silver white
when it advances as though cogs latched onto cogs
The exquisitely made news softly softly
those brand new leaves