Chinese Poetic Writing
Page 15
All things in their majesty, shadowed and seen there.
The single gleaming jewel; not within, not without.
XUAN JUE
Canticle of the Way (3)
The one moon seen, in all the waters.
All waters’ moon, that one moon holds.
Dharmakaya of the Buddhas in my being.
My being with the Thus Come one.
* * *
Line 3: Dharmakaya = body of the law, the sacred body.
Line 4: Thus Come = Tathagata, the Buddha.
XUAN JUE
Canticle of the Way (4)
Let them mock! Let them laugh!
Light heaven with a torch? They toil in vain.
Their cries to me: taste of sweet dew.
Melted away, suddenly enter, the realm of No-thought.
WEI YING-WU
The West River at Chu-zhou
Alone, for love of hidden herbs, which flourish by the stream.
Above, the yellow oriole sings deep among the trees.
Spring’s flood tides, and rain, together, to this evening come.
No man at the ferry: boat drifts there, on its own.
* * *
This poem is based in a world of solitude and letting go. If the first two lines suggest a possible intimacy between the poet and nature, line 3 shows a nature that is dynamic and indifferent to human destiny (the rising of spring nonetheless reflects the flux in the poet’s desires). The final line, while it accentuates the impression of nostalgia and abandonment, is, nonetheless, not conclusive. (Will the drifting boat reach the other bank, or will it be carried away by the current?) We propose that this poem be read parallel to Rimbaud’s “Loin des oiseaux des troupeaux, des villageoises…(Une saison en enfer). Most interesting to observe is the difference in language: here, an apparently laconic and impersonal expression; there, a ceaselessly interrogative discourse.
WEI YING-WU
On Mount Lang-ya
At Stone Gate there is snow, no trace of travel.
Pine Valley’s mists, so full of fragrances.
To the crumbs of our meal in the court, cold birds come down.
A tattered robe hangs on the tree, the old monk’s dead.
LIU YU-XI
The City of Stones
Ancient land, wrapped safe in mountains.
The tide attacks the empty wall, ebbs quietly.
East of the Huai, moon of those days,
Late night again, upon the battlements.
* * *
The City of Stones (the present city of Nan-jing) was a flourishing capital during the Six Dynasties period. It fell into decay during the Tang, whose capital was in the north, at Chang-an.
LIU YU-XI
Song of the Bamboo Stalks
Red blossoms of the mountain peach, upon the heights.
Shu River, floods of spring caress the mountain, flowing.
The flowers bloom and fade, so like his love.
The waters run on endlessly; my sorrow.
* * *
The poet composed, during his stay in the southwest of China, a series of love lyrics based on the popular songs of the region. Thus he contributed to the birth of the xin yue-fu (new folk song), which was made famous by poets like Bai Ju-yi and Yuan Chen. In this poem the singer is a woman, who fears that the sentiments of her lover will be short-lived. The images allude to the sexual act, which in this region of China was often accomplished in the great outdoors.
WANG JIA
Day of the Spring Sacrifice
Lake of the Geese at the foot of the mountain, rice and millet fat.
Henhouse and pigpen shut up tight.
Shadows of the mulberries grow long, the Spring-fest ended.
Propped each on each, the drunken, wandering home.
QIAN QI
Dedicated to the Hermit Cui
Path to the simples, deep in red moss.
Window on the mountain, full of verdure.
I envy you your wine among the flowers;
The butterflies flying, there, in your dream.
JIA DAO
Searching, and Not Finding, the Hermit
Beneath the pines I asked the boy.
“The master’s gone in search of simples
He’s on the mountain over there,
The clouds so thick, I can’t tell where.”
* * *
The title reflects an important theme of Chinese poetry (see the regulated verse of Liu Chang-qing. Such a visit is often the occasion of a spiritual experience; the absence of the hermit accentuates the difference of the “ways” of the hermit and his visitor. In this poem the four lines which contain the information provided by the young disciple (information that becomes more and more vague) describe in reality the stages in the spiritual ascension of the Master: line 1, a place to live; line 2, a road or a Way; line 3, a profound communion with nature; line 4, a spirit of complete detachment.
JIA DAO
Passing the Night in a Village Inn
This bed’s pillow’s a stone in the stream,
That runs from the well spring to the bamboo’s pool.
The traveler has not slept, as midnight goes.
Alone, he listens, as the mountain rain arrives.
LIU ZONG-YUAN
River Snow
A thousand mountains, no birds fly.
Ten thousand paths, no footprints.
Lone skiff, rush-cloaked old man.
Fishing alone, cold river snow.
LI DUAN
The Lute Player
Sound of the lute, gold-spangled pegs.
White hands, by the chamber of jade.
To gain the glance of Zhou-lang,
From time to time, she’ll miss a note.
* * *
Line 3: Zhou-lang = an allusion to the young general Zhou Yu of the Three Kingdoms period (third century), celebrated for his deportment and intelligence, and for his victory over Cao Cao at the battle of Red Cliff. He was also a fine musician. Even as a child, when he took part in musical performances the least fault in the performance of the musicians would attract his attention and his disapproving regard.
WANG JIAN
The New Wife
On the third day she went down to the kitchen,
Washed her hands, prepared the broth.
Still unaware of her new mother’s likings,
She asks his sister to taste.
ZHANG HU
Lady of the Court
Forbidden Palace trees, traced on the passing moon.
Her pretty eyes look long upon the egrets’ nest.
She reaches her hairpin of jade through the lamplight’s shadows,
Shears the red flame, to save the moth.
* * *
The “lady” is one of those women of the court whose selection was perhaps an honor, but whose life was often one of suffering, captive and forsaken, since, in view of their very number, few indeed ever became “favorites.” Most, ignored and deprived of affection, lived a solitary life. The lady of the poem envies the egrets, which nest for the night together. Her rescue of the moth expresses her own desire to be free of her gilded cage.
DU MU
Confession
Soul sunk in Jiang-nan, wandering with wine.
All beauties’ hearts are broken, if they fall into my hands.
Ten years dozing, Yang-zhou dreams
I have won a name among these pleasure houses: “heartless man.”
* * *
It is impossible not to remark upon the nostalgic and disabused tone of the poet. The last line takes on a particularly ironic sense when we consider that in ancient China the ideal of the literati was to leave a name to posterity on the basis of their writings or their acts of merit. If, in line 1, the poet shows us a quite contrary destiny, it is yet one not completely deprived of the possibility of future grandeur (one has only to think of a Qu Yuan or a Du Fu, who knew wandering and exile). By the end of the poem, however, he can only
claim to have made a name as a “heartless man” in the “pleasure houses” of the courtesan quarter. Lines I and 2, composed entirely of metaphorical imagery and allusions, possess an evocative power that cannot be fully rendered in translation. See this page–this page à propos metaphorical language.
DU MU
A Note to Judge Han, at Yang-zhou
Blue mountains, shaded, shaded; the waters vast, so vast.
Autumn gone, south of the River, but grasses not yet faded.
The twenty-four bridges, bright in moonlit night.
Where is the Being of Jade, you teach to play the flute?
* * *
Yang-zhou, situated at the mouth of the Yang-tze, is a city of the waters, graced with a great number of bridges. Du Mu spent many happy years there. See the preceding poem.
Line 4: Being of Jade = beautiful woman.
DU MU
Poem of Parting
Great love could seem indifference.
The only hint before the cup: we cannot smile.
Only the candle’s not heartless,
Wept tears for us until the dawn.
DU MU
Lying among the “Bloodstained Bamboo”
Dyed drop by drop with blood, become a flowery brocade,
A thousand years of anguish, to this day.
Clearly these are Xiang-fei’s tears.
How could I bear to lie upon these traces?
* * *
At the death of the legendary Shun, his two wives cried at his tomb, near Lake Dong-ting. Their tears of blood stained the bamboo there, which was thereafter known as “Bloodstained Bamboo.” One of these wives threw herself into the River Xiang and became the goddess, or fairy, of its waters.
DU MU
Spring South of the River
Song of the oriole, a thousand li, reds brighten on the green.
Streamside village, mountains for walls, wind in the tavern banner.
Four hundred eighty temples in the Southern Dynasties.
Now how many towers, terraces? The misting rain.
* * *
Line 3: tavern banner = pennants that served traditionally as the mark of wine-sellers or taverns.
Line 4: mist and rain = the air in spring. The poem evokes the countryside typical of Jiang-nan (“South of the River”). Here, in the region of Nan-jing, were found the several capitals of the Southern Dynasties (fifth and sixth centuries), a period of great flourishing for Buddhism.
DU MU
On the Nan-ling River
At Nan-ling on the waters, floating far, so far.
Brisk breeze, light clouds, it will be autumn.
Just here the traveler’s heart turns lonely back.
Whose red sleeve is draped upon the rail of River Hall?
* * *
Line 4: This somewhat “surrealistic” apparition is full of force and ambiguity: is it the red sleeve of the lover, or merely that of any other person? Is it the token of a gesture of farewell, or a fortuitous, an indifferent gesture?
DU MU
Garden of the Golden Valley
Last year’s splendid blossoms gone: a perfumed dust.
The flowing water cannot care, yet grasses spring.
Sunsets, east wind, the birds complain.
Flowers still will fall here: as she from her tower.
* * *
The garden was constructed by Shi Cong, a rich and celebrated man of the Jin, who lived ostentatiously there.
Line 4: An allusion to Lü-zhu, a beautiful courtesan of Shi Cong. Seduced by her beauty, Sun Xiu, a powerful man of the regime, sought to gain her for himself by putting Shi Cong out of the way. She preferred death, throwing herself from the top of the tower.
DU MU
Traveling among Mountains
Far climbing cold mountain, rocky path turns.
There, where clouds grow, some man’s home.
I halt the carriage, sit adoring, evening, maple grove.
Frosted leaves far redder than March bloom.
LI SHANG-YIN
Le-you Plain
As dark comes on, all ill at ease,
I drive the carriage, climb the ancient plain.
The evening light is infinitely sweet,
And yet, the night approaches.
* * *
The Le-you Plain, a scenic area, is located on a plateau near Chang-an, the Tang capital.
LI SHANG-YIN
Edge of the Sky
Spring sun at the edge of the sky.
At the edge of the sky, sun, set.
The nightingale speaks, as if through tears,
To wet the highest blossom.
* * *
The “nightingale” is, here, a migratory bird whose coming, and whose song, announce the end of spring.
LI SHANG-YIN
Chang-E
The mica screen obscures the candle’s shadows.
The Milky Way turns round, the stars of morning fade.
Chang-E regrets she stole the true elixir.
Green sea, blue sky, night after night, of love.
* * *
The goddess Chang-E stole the elixir of life that Xi Wang-mu (Queen Mother of the West) had planned to give to her husband, and fled to the moon. There she was condemned to live forever. Here there is, perhaps, an allusion to a female recluse (a palace lady or a Taoist nun) with whom the poet desired a forbidden love.
TANG WEN-RU
Lake Qing-cao, in Long-yang Prefecture
Breath of the west wind ages Dong-ting’s waves.
Xiang-jun’s hair, in one night, whitened.
Drunk, and it seems, the sky’s in the water.
Skiff of pure dreams, weighs on the River of Stars.
* * *
Lake Qing-cao, Green Grass Lake, through which flows the Xiang River, is connected on the north with Lake Dong-ting.
Line 2: Xiang-jun, which might be translated “man of Xiang,” also designates “the fairy of the Xiang,” one of the wives of the mythical emperor Shun, drowned herself in the Xiang at the death of her husband, and became a goddess its waters.
Line 4: River of Stars = the Milky Way reflected in the water.
Lü-shi
(Regulated Verse)
WANG BO
The Wind
In its sigh, cool shadows born,
Clearing my valley, my grove,
Chasing the smoke through the gate of the gorge,
Rolling the mist past the mountain pillars,
Going, or coming, leaving no trace,
Moving, and stopping, as if by design.