Poems by  Wang Wei (A.D. 701 - 761)



AT PARTING

I dismount from my horse and I offer you wine, 
And I ask you where you are going and why. 
And you answer: "I am discontent 
And would rest at the foot of the southern mountain. 
So give me leave and ask me no questions. 
White clouds pass there without end." 


TO QIWU QIAN BOUND HOME
AFTER FAILING IN AN EXAMINATION

In a happy reign there should be no hermits; 
The wise and able should consult together.... 
So you, a man of the eastern mountains, 
Gave up your life of picking herbs 
And came all the way to the Gate of Gold -- 
But you found your devotion unavailing. 
...To spend the Day of No Fire on one of the southern rivers, 
You have mended your spring clothes here in these northern cities. 
I pour you the farewell wine as you set out from the capital -- 
Soon I shall be left behind here by my bosomfriend. 
In your sail-boat of sweet cinnamon-wood 
You will float again toward your own thatch door, 
Led along by distant trees 
To a sunset shining on a far-away town. 
...What though your purpose happened to fail, 
Doubt not that some of us can hear high music. 


A GREEN STREAM

I have sailed the River of Yellow Flowers, 
Borne by the channel of a green stream, 
Rounding ten thousand turns through the mountains 
On a journey of less than thirty miles.... 
Rapids hum over heaped rocks; 
But where light grows dim in the thick pines, 
The surface of an inlet sways with nut-horns 
And weeds are lush along the banks. 
...Down in my heart I have always been as pure 
As this limpid water is.... 
Oh, to remain on a broad flat rock 
And to cast a fishing-line forever! 


A FARM-HOUSE ON THE WEI RIVER

In the slant of the sun on the country-side, 
Cattle and sheep trail home along the lane; 
And a rugged old man in a thatch door 
Leans on a staff and thinks of his son, the herdboy. 
There are whirring pheasants? full wheat-ears, 
Silk-worms asleep, pared mulberry-leaves. 
And the farmers, returning with hoes on their shoulders, 
Hail one another familiarly. 
...No wonder I long for the simple life 
And am sighing the old song, Oh, to go Back Again! 


THE BEAUTIFUL XI SHI

Since beauty is honoured all over the Empire, 
How could Xi Shi remain humbly at home? -- 
Washing clothes at dawn by a southern lake -- 
And that evening a great lady in a palace of the north: 
Lowly one day, no different from the others, 
The next day exalted, everyone praising her. 
No more would her own hands powder her face 
Or arrange on her shoulders a silken robe. 
And the more the King loved her, the lovelier she looked, 
Blinding him away from wisdom. 
...Girls who had once washed silk beside her 
Were kept at a distance from her chariot. 
And none of the girls in her neighbours' houses 
By pursing their brows could copy her beauty. 


A SONG OF A GIRL FROM LOYANG

There's a girl from Loyang in the door across the street, 
She looks fifteen, she may be a little older. 
...While her master rides his rapid horse with jade bit an bridle, 
Her handmaid brings her cod-fish in a golden plate. 
On her painted pavilions, facing red towers, 
Cornices are pink and green with peach-bloom and with willow, 
Canopies of silk awn her seven-scented chair, 
And rare fans shade her, home to her nine-flowered curtains. 
Her lord, with rank and wealth and in the bud of life, 
Exceeds in munificence the richest men of old. 
He favours this girl of lowly birth, he has her taught to dance; 
And he gives away his coral-trees to almost anyone. 
The wind of dawn just stirs when his nine soft lights go out, 
Those nine soft lights like petals in a flying chain of flowers. 
Between dances she has barely time for singing over the songs; 
No sooner is she dressed again than incense burns before her. 
Those she knows in town are only the rich and the lavish, 
And day and night she is visiting the hosts of the gayest mansions. 
...Who notices the girl from Yue with a face of white jade, 
Humble, poor, alone, by the river, washing silk? 



SONG OF AN OLD GENERAL

When he was a youth of fifteen or twenty, 
He chased a wild horse, he caught him and rode him, 
He shot the white-browed mountain tiger, 
He defied the yellow-bristled Horseman of Ye. 
Fighting single- handed for a thousand miles, 
With his naked dagger he could hold a multitude. 
...Granted that the troops of China were as swift as heaven's thunder 
And that Tartar soldiers perished in pitfalls fanged with iron, 
General Wei Qing's victory was only a thing of chance. 
And General Li Guang's thwarted effort was his fate, not his fault. 
Since this man's retirement he is looking old and worn: 
Experience of the world has hastened his white hairs. 
Though once his quick dart never missed the right eye of a bird, 
Now knotted veins and tendons make his left arm like an osier. 
He is sometimes at the road-side selling melons from his garden, 
He is sometimes planting willows round his hermitage. 
His lonely lane is shut away by a dense grove, 
His vacant window looks upon the far cold mountains 
But, if he prayed, the waters would come gushing for his men 
And never would he wanton his cause away with wine. 
...War-clouds are spreading, under the Helan Range; 
Back and forth, day and night, go feathered messages; 
In the three River Provinces, the governors call young men -- 
And five imperial edicts have summoned the old general. 
So he dusts his iron coat and shines it like snow- 
Waves his dagger from its jade hilt in a dance of starry steel. 
He is ready with his strong northern bow to smite the Tartar chieftain -- 
That never a foreign war-dress may affront the Emperor. 
...There once was an aged Prefect, forgotten and far away, 
Who still could manage triumph with a single stroke. 


A SONG OF PEACH-BLOSSOM RIVER

A fisherman is drifting, enjoying the spring mountains, 
And the peach-trees on both banks lead him to an ancient source. 
Watching the fresh-coloured trees, he never thinks of distance 
Till he comes to the end of the blue stream and suddenly- strange men! 
It's a cave-with a mouth so narrow that he has to crawl through; 
But then it opens wide again on a broad and level path -- 
And far beyond he faces clouds crowning a reach of trees, 
And thousands of houses shadowed round with flowers and bamboos.... 
Woodsmen tell him their names in the ancient speech of Han; 
And clothes of the Qin Dynasty are worn by all these people 
Living on the uplands, above the Wuling River, 
On farms and in gardens that are like a world apart, 
Their dwellings at peace under pines in the clear moon, 
Until sunrise fills the low sky with crowing and barking. 
...At news of a stranger the people all assemble, 
And each of them invites him home and asks him where he was born. 
Alleys and paths are cleared for him of petals in the morning, 
And fishermen and farmers bring him their loads at dusk.... 
They had left the world long ago, they had come here seeking refuge; 
They have lived like angels ever since, blessedly far away, 
No one in the cave knowing anything outside, 
Outsiders viewing only empty mountains and thick clouds. 
...The fisherman, unaware of his great good fortune, 
Begins to think of country, of home, of worldly ties, 
Finds his way out of the cave again, past mountains and past rivers, 
Intending some time to return, when he has told his kin. 
He studies every step he takes, fixes it well in mind, 
And forgets that cliffs and peaks may vary their appearance. 
...It is certain that to enter through the deepness of the mountain, 
A green river leads you, into a misty wood. 
But now, with spring-floods everywhere and floating peachpetals -- 
Which is the way to go, to find that hidden source? 


A MESSAGE FROM MY LODGE AT WANGCHUAN 
TO PEI DI

The mountains are cold and blue now 
And the autumn waters have run all day. 
By my thatch door, leaning on my staff, 
I listen to cicadas in the evening wind. 
Sunset lingers at the ferry, 
Supper-smoke floats up from the houses. 
...Oh, when shall I pledge the great Hermit again 
And sing a wild poem at Five Willows? 


AN AUTUMN EVENING IN THE MOUNTAINS

After rain the empty mountain 
Stands autumnal in the evening, 
Moonlight in its groves of pine, 
Stones of crystal in its brooks. 
Bamboos whisper of washer-girls bound home, 
Lotus-leaves yield before a fisher-boat -- 
And what does it matter that springtime has gone, 
While you are here, O Prince of Friends? 


BOUND HOME TO MOUNT SONG

The limpid river, past its bushes 
Running slowly as my chariot, 
Becomes a fellow voyager 
Returning home with the evening birds. 
A ruined city-wall overtops an old ferry, 
Autumn sunset floods the peaks. 
...Far away, beside Mount Song, 
I shall close my door and be at peace. 


MOUNT ZHONGNAN

Its massive height near the City of Heaven 
Joins a thousand mountains to the corner of the sea. 
Clouds, when I look back, close behind me, 
Mists, when I enter them, are gone. 
A central peak divides the wilds 
And weather into many valleys. 
...Needing a place to spend the night, 
I call to a wood-cutter over the river. 


ANSWERING VICE-PREFECT ZHANG

As the years go by, give me but peace, 
Freedom from ten thousand matters. 
I ask myself and always answer: 
What can be better than coming home? 
A wind from the pine-trees blows my sash, 
And my lute is bright with the mountain moon. 
You ask me about good and evil fortune?.... 
Hark, on the lake there's a fisherman singing! 


TOWARD THE TEMPLE OF HEAPED FRAGRANCE

Not knowing the way to the Temple of Heaped Fragrance, 
Under miles of mountain-cloud I have wandered 
Through ancient woods without a human track; 
But now on the height I hear a bell. 
A rillet sings over winding rocks, 
The sun is tempered by green pines.... 
And at twilight, close to an emptying pool, 
Thought can conquer the Passion-Dragon. 


A MESSAGE TO COMMISSIONER LI AT ZIZHOU

From ten thousand valleys the trees touch heaven; 
On a thousand peaks cuckoos are calling; 
And, after a night of mountain rain, 
From each summit come hundreds of silken cascades. 
...If girls are asked in tribute the fibre they weave, 
Or farmers quarrel over taro fields, 
Preside as wisely as Wenweng did.... 
Is fame to be only for the ancients? 


A VIEW OF THE HAN RIVER

With its three southern branches reaching the Chu border, 
And its nine streams touching the gateway of Jing, 
This river runs beyond heaven and earth, 
Where the colour of mountains both is and is not. 
The dwellings of men seem floating along 
On ripples of the distant sky -- 
These beautiful days here in Xiangyang 
Make drunken my old mountain heart! 


MY RETREAT AT MOUNT ZHONGNAN

My heart in middle age found the Way. 
And I came to dwell at the foot of this mountain. 
When the spirit moves, I wander alone 
Amid beauty that is all for me.... 
I will walk till the water checks my path, 
Then sit and watch the rising clouds -- 
And some day meet an old wood-cutter 
And talk and laugh and never return. 


AN EARLY AUDIENCE AT THE PALACE OF LIGHT
HARMONIZING SECRETARY JIA ZHI POEM

The red-capped Cock-Man has just announced morning; 
The Keeper of the Robes brings Jade-Cloud Furs; 
Heaven's nine doors reveal the palace and its courtyards; 
And the coats of many countries bow to the Pearl Crown. 
Sunshine has entered the giants' carven palms; 
Incense wreathes the Dragon Robe: 
The audience adjourns-and the five-coloured edict 
Sets girdle-beads clinking toward the Lake of the Phoenix. 


LOOKING DOWN IN A SPRING-RAIN ON THE COURSE 
FROM FAIRY-MOUNTAIN PALACE TO THE PAVILION OF 
INCREASE HARMONIZING THE EMPEROR'S POEM

Round a turn of the Qin Fortress winds the Wei River, 
And Yellow Mountain foot-hills enclose the Court of China; 
Past the South Gate willows comes the Car of Many Bells 
On the upper Palace-Garden Road-a solid length of blossom; 
A Forbidden City roof holds two phoenixes in cloud; 
The foliage of spring shelters multitudes from rain; 
And now, when the heavens are propitious for action, 
Here is our Emperor ready-no wasteful wanderer. 


IN MY LODGE AT WANG CHUAN 
AFTER A LONG RAIN

The woods have stored the rain, and slow comes the smoke 
As rice is cooked on faggots and carried to the fields; 
Over the quiet marsh-land flies a white egret, 
And mango-birds are singing in the full summer trees.... 
I have learned to watch in peace the mountain morningglories, 
To eat split dewy sunflower-seeds under a bough of pine, 
To yield the post of honour to any boor at all.... 
Why should I frighten sea gulls, even with a thought? 


HARMONIZING A POEM BY PALACE-ATTENDANT GUO

High beyond the thick wall a tower shines with sunset 
Where peach and plum are blooming and the willowcotton flies. 
You have heard in your office the court-bell of twilight; 
Birds find perches, officials head for home. 
Your morning-jade will tinkle as you thread the golden palace; 
You will bring the word of Heaven from the closing gates at night. 
And I should serve there with you; but being full of years, 
I have taken off official robes and am resting from my troubles. 


DEER-PARK HERMITAGE

There seems to be no one on the empty mountain.... 
And yet I think I hear a voice, 
Where sunlight, entering a grove, 
Shines back to me from the green moss. 


IN A RETREAT AMONG BAMBOOS

Leaning alone in the close bamboos, 
I am playing my lute and humming a song 
Too softly for anyone to hear -- 
Except my comrade, the bright moon. 


A PARTING

Friend, I have watched you down the mountain 
Till now in the dark I close my thatch door.... 
Grasses return again green in the spring, 
But O my Prince of Friends, do you? 


ONE-HEARTED

When those red berries come in springtime, 
Flushing on your southland branches, 
Take home an armful, for my sake, 
As a symbol of our love. 


LINES

You who have come from my old country, 
Tell me what has happened there ! -- 
Was the plum, when you passed my silken window, 
Opening its first cold blossom? 


ON THE MOUNTAIN HOLIDAY 
THINKING OF MY BROTHERS IN SHANDONG

All alone in a foreign land, 
I am twice as homesick on this day 
When brothers carry dogwood up the mountain, 
Each of them a branch-and my branch missing. 


A SONG AT WEICHENG

A morning-rain has settled the dust in Weicheng; 
Willows are green again in the tavern dooryard.... 
Wait till we empty one more cup -- 
West of Yang Gate there'll be no old friends. 


A SONG OF AN AUTUMN NIGHT

Under the crescent moon a light autumn dew 
Has chilled the robe she will not change -- 
And she touches a silver lute all night, 
Afraid to go back to her empty room.