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Peach Blossom Stream, Zhang Xu (Tang Shi #262)
Thursday, 27 June 2019 12:04A flying bridge parts the broken mist—
From a west-bank rock, I ask a fishing boat:
“All day, peach blossoms flow upon the waters:
On which side of the clear stream is the cave?”
桃花溪
隐隐飞桥隔野烟，
石矶西畔问渔船；
桃花尽日随流水，
洞在清谿何处边？
The cave being the entrance to Peach-Blossom Land (see #229) that the speaker is supposing the fallen flowers are from. The pose is as artificial as any courtly Japanese poem. The flying bridge seems to be one of those high semicircle-arch ones, but some commentaries understand (via the allusion) this as taking place in a mountain gorge, which would make it a bridge high up the walls.
My instinct is that I’m misconstruing the second line — maybe it’s supposed to be “after after/for” a fisherman, to make the scene from the legend complete? Regardless, the couplet seems rhetorically unbalanced as is.
—L.
From a west-bank rock, I ask a fishing boat:
“All day, peach blossoms flow upon the waters:
On which side of the clear stream is the cave?”
桃花溪
隐隐飞桥隔野烟，
石矶西畔问渔船；
桃花尽日随流水，
洞在清谿何处边？
The cave being the entrance to Peach-Blossom Land (see #229) that the speaker is supposing the fallen flowers are from. The pose is as artificial as any courtly Japanese poem. The flying bridge seems to be one of those high semicircle-arch ones, but some commentaries understand (via the allusion) this as taking place in a mountain gorge, which would make it a bridge high up the walls.
My instinct is that I’m misconstruing the second line — maybe it’s supposed to be “after after/for” a fisherman, to make the scene from the legend complete? Regardless, the couplet seems rhetorically unbalanced as is.
—L.