Tune: “Song of Fortune-telling”

Written at Dinghui Abbey in Huangzhou

卜算子-黄州定慧院寓居作

苏 轼（许渊冲译）

From a sparse plane tree hangs the waning moon,

The waterclock is still and hushed is man.

Who sees a hermit pacing up and down alone?

Is it the shadow of a fugitive swan?

Startled, he turns his head

With a grief none behold.

Looking all over, he won’t perch on branches dead

But on the lonely sandbank cold.

缺月挂疏桐，

漏断人初静。

谁见幽人独往来？

缥缈孤鸿影。

惊起却回头，

有恨无人省。

拣尽寒枝不肯栖，

寂寞沙洲冷。

[词汇] sparse

adj. 稀疏的，稀少的

例句：

Vegetation becomes sparse high up the mountains.

山上越高的地方，植物越稀少。