柳宗元·《石渠记》英译

自渴西南行不能百步，得石渠，民桥其上。有泉幽幽然，其鸣乍大，乍细。渠之广，或咫尺，或倍尺，其长可十许步。其流抵大石，伏出其下。

踰石而往，有石泓，昌蒲被之，青鲜环周。

又折西行，旁陷岩石下，北堕小潭。潭，幅员减百尺，清深多倏鱼。

又北，曲行纡余，睨若无穷，然卒入于渴。

其侧，皆诡石，怪木，奇卉，美箭，可列坐而庥焉。风摇其巅，韵动崖谷。视之既静，其听始远。

予从州牧得之。揽去翳朽，决疏土石，既崇而焚，既酾而盈。惜其未始有传焉者，故累记其所属，遗之其人，书之其阳，俾后好事者求之得以易。

元和七年正月八日，鷁渠至大石。十月十九日，踰石得石泓小潭，渠之美于是始穷也。

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The Rocky Trough

Liu Zongyuan

Less than a hundred paces southwest from the ghyll, I found a rocky trough. A plank had been thrown across it. A spring bubbles out from the stones there, now gurgling merrily, now murmuring softly. This trough measures one to two feet across and about ten paces in length. The brook, coming to a great boulder, passes under it.

Crossing this boulder, I came to a grotto overgrown with sweet flags and with green moss all around.

There the brook turns west and dips sideway under a cliff, cascading northward into a little pool. This pool, less than a hundred feet around, is clear and deep and has many white fish in it.

Northward the brook winds on and on, as if it will never end, but finally enters the ghyll.

By the trough are fantastic rocks, gnarled trees, strange flowers, and graceful young bamboos. Several people can sit there at a time to rest. When the wind strikes the hill top, an echo is heard in the valley. The scene is tranquil, and sound travels far.

After acquiring this property from the prefect, I cleared the dead wood and leaves and made a bonfire of them, then removed some of the earth and stones from the trough so that the water should flow more freely. It seemed a pity that no record had been made of this place, so I wrote a detailed account and left it with the local people to inscribe on the south of the boulder. In this way, sightseers after us will find this spot easily.

On the eighth day of the first month of the seventh year of Yuan He (1), I cleared the way from the trough to the great boulder. But not till the nineteenth of the tenth month, when I crossed the boulder and found the grotto and pool, did I discover the full beauty of the trough.

(1)    AD 812.