16

Li Ch’ai

In empty mountains no one can be seen.

But here might echoing voices cross.

Reflecting rays

entering the deep wood

Glitter again

on the dark green moss.

WILLIAM McNAUGHTON, 1974

(McNaughton, Chinese Literature)

McNaughton offers the Chinese place-name as a title, but his transliteration is incorrect — something like Beer Park.

Line 1 copies James Liu (#10) by placing it in the passive voice and, like Liu, seems almost a parody of Eastern Wisdom. Line 2 places the action here for no reason and adds cross for the rhyme scheme he has imposed on himself. (Not much rhymes with moss; it’s something of an albatross.) The conditional might is bizarre. (Well, do they or don’t they?)

Splitting the last couplet into four lines is apparently an attempt at pictorial representation.