I think it might be possible to do a literal translation into English that also eschews function words – since it's poetry, you can use a freely associating sty

I think it might be possible to do a literal translation into English that also eschews function words – since it's poetry, you can use a freely associating style. E.g. the first rhyming couplet 天地玄黃 宇宙洪荒 was translated somewhat verbosely by Nathan Sturman as "The sky was black and earth yellow; space and time vast, limitless" but why many words when few do trick? "Dark sky, yellow earth; vast space, barren time." To make it rhyme, you could replace "earth" by "lime" (referring to calcium oxide, not the fruit) but that would be very barren indeed.