English中文
Song of Divination: Written While Staying at Dinghui Temple in Huangzhou
缺月挂疏桐，
漏断人初静。
谁见幽人独往来，
缥缈孤鸿影。
A waning moon hangs in the sparse paulownia; the water-clock is stilled, and all is quiet at last. Who sees the hermit walking to and fro alone, the faint shadow of a lone wild goose?
惊起却回头，
有恨无人省。
拣尽寒枝不肯栖，
寂寞沙洲冷。
Startled, it rises and turns its head, bearing a grief that no one understands. It picks among the cold branches and will not settle: lonely, the sandy islet is cold.
Reading notes
谁见 also appears as 时见. 省, meaning “to understand,” is read xǐng. 孤鸿 is a lone wild goose, an image that carries the lyric’s solitude.