The River Merchant''s Wife: a Letter
by Ezra Pound
While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the villiage of Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.
At fourteen I married my lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.
At fifteent I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
For ever and for ever and for ever.
Why should I clime the look out?
At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-yen, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months,
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.
You dragged your feet when you went out ,
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you,
As far as Cho-fu-Sa.
李白原詩：
長幹行（河商之妻：壹封家書）
妾發初覆額。
折花門前劇。
郎騎竹馬來。
繞床弄青梅。
同居長幹裏。
兩小無嫌猜。
十四為君婦。
羞顏未嘗開。 ( 未嘗壹作尚不 )
低頭向暗壁。
千喚不壹回。
十五始展眉。
願同塵與灰。
常存抱柱信。
豈上望夫臺。 ( 豈壹作恥 )
十六君遠行。
瞿塘灩預堆。 預加水旁
五月不可觸。
猿聲天上哀。 ( 聲壹作鳴 )
門前遲行跡。 ( 遲壹作舊 )
壹壹生綠苔。 ( 綠壹作蒼 )
苔深不能掃。
落葉秋風早。
八月胡蝶黃。
雙飛西園草。
感此傷妾心。
坐愁紅顏老。
早晚下三巴。
預將書報家。
相迎不道遠。
直至長風沙
壹般認為，《河商之妻：壹封家書》是龐德對《長幹行》的翻譯。由於龐德對中國文化認知的欠缺，詩中有很多誤譯之處，如將“竹馬”譯成bamboo stilts（“高蹺”）等。在形式上，原詩是嚴格的五言律詩，而龐德的譯詩則為無韻自由體詩。龐德的譯詩的主題內涵與原詩有著壹定的差距。兩詩在語氣、情感上的差別俯拾皆是，此處僅舉最後壹個詩節為例。原詩中的女主角見蝴蝶雙飛，便生相思悲秋之意(“感此傷妾心，坐愁紅顏老”)，壹心盼望丈夫早歸，稱自己將“相迎不道遠，直至長風沙。”真是深情款款。而龐詩則稱”They hurt me. I grow older." 顯得非常生硬、呆板。而隨後的"if...please"句型更是顯出女主人公口吻的冷淡及她與丈夫之間關系的生疏。她也將去迎接丈夫遠行歸來，"as far as Cho-fu-Sa", 僅此而已。因此，龐德的譯詩實際上是他的再創作，詩中的女主人公身上也具有了更多的現代性。該詩是許多美國詩選的必錄之作，從這個意義上來講，我們完全可以將之理解為龐德自己的代表作。