Posts
The Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei and his friend Pei Di wrote a series of paired quatrains about twenty sites on Wang's estate near the Wang River. (This "wang" is a different word, written with a different character, than the poet's name.) I would like to make my version of all of these forty poems, commonly called "The Wang River Sequence." The majority of Wang's contributions are pretty readily available in some form I can work on. But those of Pei Di, the less-celebrated poet, are quite scarce.
XINYI VILLAGE
Limbs, branches, hibiscus flowers.
Throughout the hills, their red calyces.
House by the stream, stillness, and no one.
All around, all blooming and falling.
RILL BY THE HOUSE OF THE LUANS
Hard wind blows through autumn rain.
Shallow rills flow over rocks.
Water beads splash against each other.
White egret starts, then settles back.
DEER FENCE
Empty Mountain.
Seeing no one.
Hearing someone's
echoing voice.
The late day sun
enters again
the deep forest,
shining once more
on the green moss.
Seeing no one.
Hearing someone's
echoing voice.
The late day sun
enters again
the deep forest,
shining once more
on the green moss.
BAMBOO GROVE
Picking out tunes on my lute,
whistling a bit of something,
I sit here in so much light,
alone and facing the moon.
