There are no birds flying over those mountains, and there are no traces of people in those paths. A boat on the river, a fisherman wearing his webworm moth; Fishing alone is not afraid of snow and ice.
From this mountain to that mountain, there are no birds flying; From one road to another, no one knows. A lonely fisherman is floating, fishing for snow in a lonely boat.
Jiang Xue's poems are like a landscape painting with China characteristics, with many blank spaces. The most difficult thing to translate is "artistic conception"
In Xu Yuanchong's translation, we can see his consistent rhythm; If we look closely, we will also find that there is only one place where verbs are used in the whole translation, and the others are static noun phrases or expressions, which are commensurate with the dynamic and static. This is a good place for translation.
The foot of my bed is shining so brightly. Is there frost already? I looked up at the moon and looked down, feeling nostalgic.
A quiet night, a bed, I saw a bunch of silver light; I wonder if there is frost around. Looking up, I found that the moon was bright; Bow, I was drowned in homesickness.
The translation of this poem rhymes with one or three sentences and two or four sentences. The most magical thing in this translation should be the inversion of the last sentence. The use of inversion in English original poems is everywhere, which will have different rhythmic beauty when read.
Dead vines and old trees faint crows, small bridges and flowing water, old roads and thin horses, sunset, heartbroken people on the horizon.
Crows fly at dusk on the old trees with rotten vines; Under a small bridge near the hut, a stream is flowing; West wind ancient road, thin horse line. The sun sets in the west; Far away from home is the one who is heartbroken.
Regarding the usage of inverted sentences, I have to mention this song here: the first three sentences of the original work are completely composed of nouns, but such sentences are completely valid in Chinese. For English translation, it will be a headache for translators.
Xu Yuanchong's handling method is to use inversion sentences reasonably, which are all inverted sentences throughout, keeping the structure consistent and "turning static into dynamic", so that the translated English will not appear abrupt and obscure. Imagine that if you simply translate nouns, grammar is untenable in English, let alone "poetry".