谢灵运于宋景平元年(423年)辞去永嘉太守之职,回到始宁的祖居,又营造了一些新的庄园别墅,其一在石门山上(今浙江嵊县境内)。这首诗写的是诗人夜宿于石门别墅的岩石上的所闻。
谢灵运·《夜宿石门》
朝搴苑中兰,畏彼霜下歇。
暝还云际宿,弄此石上月。
鸟鸣识夜栖,木落知风发。
异音同至听,殊响俱清越。
妙物莫为赏,芳醑谁与伐。
美人竟不来,阳阿徒晞发。
Overnight at Stone-Gate Cliffs
Hsieh Ling-yün
I spent the morning digging out orchids,
afraid frost would soon leave them dead,
passed the night among fringes of cloud,
savoring a moon up beyond all this rock,
chortles telling me birds have settled in,
falling leaves giving away fresh winds.
Sounds weave together in the ear, strange
unearthly echoes all crystalline distance,
though there’s no one to share wonders
or the joys in wine’s fragrant clarities.
We’ll never meet again now. I sit beside
a stream, sun drying my hair for nothing.
(David Hinton 译)