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lnhammerEmpty mountain after fresh rain—
A breeze, and evening comes to autumn.
The bright moon shines between the pines;
The clear spring flows upon the stones.
The bamboo rustles, a washing-girl returns;
The lotus stirs, a fishing boat floats down.
Naturally, spring flowers rest—
Descendant of Kings of course can stay.
山居秋暝
空山新雨后，
天气晚来秋。
明月松间照，
清泉石上流。
竹喧归浣女，
莲动下渔舟。
随意春芳歇，
王孙自可留。
Back to 300 Tang Poems with a jump to a random poem in another form, as an experiment to see whether I find a longer poem in shorter lines easier than a shorter poem with longer lines. Preliminary answer: yes, but it could also be that Wang Wei is that kind of So Good. (It could also be logistics: I’m doing all this on my phone, and longer lines are more awkward on a small screen.)
The form in question is five-character “regulated verse” (lüshi), with a single rhyme across all even lines and (as with jueju) a couple possible tone patterns, plus tight semantic parallels in each of the two middle couplets. Wang Wei was, incidentally, instrumental in popularizing the form.
The boat may be “coming back” or even “disembarking” instead of “going down[stream]” —all are possible senses of 下 (xìa). The sound of the bamboo forest is sometimes (often?) read as the chatter of returning washerwomen.
(Hmph heterometricity. I don’t want to lengthen the other lines, which are nicely tight and graceful, but I don’t see good ways to shorten the bamboo and lotus lines while still sounding good. Such is the ‘joys’ of translation, having to choose which ways to be unfaithful. At this point, I’ve pretty much given up on rhymes, despite a couple near misses here.)
—L.
A breeze, and evening comes to autumn.
The bright moon shines between the pines;
The clear spring flows upon the stones.
The bamboo rustles, a washing-girl returns;
The lotus stirs, a fishing boat floats down.
Naturally, spring flowers rest—
Descendant of Kings of course can stay.
山居秋暝
空山新雨后，
天气晚来秋。
明月松间照，
清泉石上流。
竹喧归浣女，
莲动下渔舟。
随意春芳歇，
王孙自可留。
Back to 300 Tang Poems with a jump to a random poem in another form, as an experiment to see whether I find a longer poem in shorter lines easier than a shorter poem with longer lines. Preliminary answer: yes, but it could also be that Wang Wei is that kind of So Good. (It could also be logistics: I’m doing all this on my phone, and longer lines are more awkward on a small screen.)
The form in question is five-character “regulated verse” (lüshi), with a single rhyme across all even lines and (as with jueju) a couple possible tone patterns, plus tight semantic parallels in each of the two middle couplets. Wang Wei was, incidentally, instrumental in popularizing the form.
The boat may be “coming back” or even “disembarking” instead of “going down[stream]” —all are possible senses of 下 (xìa). The sound of the bamboo forest is sometimes (often?) read as the chatter of returning washerwomen.
(Hmph heterometricity. I don’t want to lengthen the other lines, which are nicely tight and graceful, but I don’t see good ways to shorten the bamboo and lotus lines while still sounding good. Such is the ‘joys’ of translation, having to choose which ways to be unfaithful. At this point, I’ve pretty much given up on rhymes, despite a couple near misses here.)
—L.