Wang Wei

 

Fine Apricot Lodge

Fine apricot cut for roofbeam 

Fragrant cogongrass tie for eaves 
Not know ridgepole in cloud 
Go make people among rain   

Fine apricot was cut for the roofbeam, 
Fragrant cogongrass tied for the eaves. 
I know not when the cloud from this house 
Will go to make rain among the people.

                            tr. Mark Alexander

Wang Wei

 

Meditation

        Thin cloud. Light rain.
        Far cell. Closed to noon.
        Sit. Look. Green moss
        Becomes one with your clothes.

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

Han Shan

I longed to visit the eastern cliff 

countless years until today 

I finally grabbed a vine and climbed 

but halfway there met mist and wind 

the trail was too narrow for clothes 

the moss too slick for shoes 

I stopped beneath this cinnamon tree 

and slept with a cloud for a pillow