Wang Wei

 

fromWheel-Rim River

 

 

1 Elder-Cliff Cove

 

At the mouth of Elder-Cliff, a rebuilt house

among old trees, broken remnants of willow.

 

Those to come: who will they be, their grief

over someone's long-ago life here empty.

 

 

5 Deer Park

 

No one seen. Among empty mountains,

hints of driftng voice, faint, no more.

 

Entering these deep woods, late sunlight

flares on green moss again, and rises.

 

 

6 Magnolia Park

 

Autumn mountains gathering last light,

one bird follows another in flight away.

 

Shifting kingfisher-greens flash radiant

scatters. Evening mists: nowhere they are.

 

 

 

13 Golden-Rain Rapids

 

Wind buffets and blows autumn rain.

Water cascading thin across rocks,

 

waves lash at each other. An egret

startles up, white, then settles back.

 

 

15 White-Rock Shallows

 

White-Rock Shallows open and clear

green reeds past prime for harvest:

 

families come down east and west,

rinse thin silk radiant in moonlight.

 

 

18 Magnolia Slope

 

Lotus blossoms adrift out across treetops

flaunt crimson calyces among mountains.

 

At home beside this stream, quiet, no one

here. Scattered. Scattered o