Let's Get Poetic

Many thanks to N.S. for making this post possible.

So I'm sure that you're all dying to find out what happens next to our lovely Prince of Wei, but today's Sunday, and I've decided to post any and all of my esoteric China stuff on Sundays, so you're just going to have to wait until Wednesday. (Of course, this is all assuming that people actually read my blog.)

This post is somewhat divergent from my usual humorous critique of Classical Chinese writing and rehtoric. I've been in a poetic mood today. Perhaps it's due to the impromptu poetry sesh I got on with my roommates last night; perhaps it's because of this beautiful, first edition copy of Wang Wei's poetry in translation that was recently lent to me; who knows? Actually, I do know: it's the Wang Wei. And maybe the impromptu poetry sesh. Okay, so it's probably both of those... and maybe also a little bit of my obsession with poetry... and China... So today, let's put it all together: impromptu Ancient Chinese poetry session, featuring the works of Wang Wei!

(Note: Like the Diamond Sutra, these poems were NOT translated by me; all credit goes to Chang Yin-nan and Lewis C. Walmsley, the compilers of Poems by Wang Wei. Please also note that all phonetic spelling is using the Wade-Giles phonetic system rather than Pinyin. For those of you who study Chinese using Pinyin, I am truly sorry. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, you're doing just fine.)

Wang Wei (王維) 699-759 BCE

Wang Wei was a Tang dynasty poet (and painter, although none of his original works remain) and incredibly influential during his lifetime.  The Tang Dynasty is also considered to be the peak of Imperial China, with abundant foodstuffs, vibrant international exchange, and flourishing arts and culture. According to Chang and Walmsley, the Tang dynasty was "one of those rare periods in history when some great creative force seems to lavish genius on a commonplace world."  High praise indeed. So, the fanatical dedicated student of Chinese history could even go as far as to say that Wang Wei was one of the best of his time, during the best of times. 

Much of Wang Wei's poetry was influenced by Buddhism, which became incredibly popular in China around this time due to the aforementioned international exchange (so maybe you'll notice some similarities between his ideas and the Diamond Sutra, if you had the attention span to finish it).  The poems in this collection follow a classic Tang style of poetry: they focus largely on nature, and were composed semi-spontaneously in what could be termed 'moments of rapture'.

Before we delve into Wang Wei's poetry, I feel compelled to include some excerpts from the introduction to Poems by Wang Wei. The translators' reverence not only for Wang Wei's work, but  also for China's natural beauty and culture, and Chinese language and script, moved me deeply and reminded me why I so love to read and translate Classical Chinese.

"The poetry of Wang Wei, intimately personal in character, may well be likened to a diary of the human spirit. Let, then, this introduction also be of a personal nature.  Let me attempt to convey something of the adventure in joy shared by Chang Yin-nan and myself [Lewis C. Walmsley] while translating the following poems.  For him, our work has eased somewhat the nostalgia within his heart caused by long exile from his native land.  For me, it has been an exultant escape: through the doorway of the mind, I have walked away from our concrete city blocks to roam the spacious Chinese countryside once more.  Both of us were happily forced back in spirit to the world of nature. [...]

"In venturing this translation, Mr. Chang and I have been made all too aware  of the advantages a poet in Chinese has over the relatively limited English language.  A scope, a freedom exists, scarcely comprehensible to those acquainted only with English.  With no rigid rules of grammar, with little concern for tense, number or mood, the Chinese author can skip blithely along, indeed fly. Like rabbits' foot-prints in new-fallen snow, his fresh impressions follow one another in crisp, staccato form.  The pictographs are so intriguing and the reward from solving them is so satisfying that the translator becomes a fascinated addict who must ever pursue the mystery.

 "Western readers may sometimes find a lost line or two which may seem an unrelated idea, a nonsequitur. This may be explained by Wang Wei's unstudied naturalness. Spontaneous thinking or conversation seldom produces a logically connected expression. At the same time, if the imagination probes beneath the apparent break, the reader can usually fill in the jump in thought. [...]

"With a few exceptions, Wang Wei makes little attempt to tell stories in his poems.  He seeks expression in tangible or concrete form in order that intimate and understanding companions may share his vision.  Nor does Wang Wei often attempt to formulate philosophical truths.  His approach to life's problems is very direct.  His shorter poems are swift observations.  Like breathing in and out, events and their repercussions on his emotions succeed each other.  As with most works of an intuitional character, he cares less about conveying meaning than in evoking psychic reactions." 

王維詩 / Poems of Wang Wei

鹿柴 /  Deer Forest Hermitage(1)

空山不見人
但聞人語響
返景入深林
復照青苔上 

Through the deep wood the slanting sunlight
Casts motley patterns on the jade-green mosses,
No glimpse of man in the lonely mountain,
Yet faint voices drift on the air.

Three Poems

I
The cottage where I now live
Faces the outlet of Mêng-chin River.(2)
Boats come often from the south;
Will they, I wonder, take my letters home?

II
You have come from my native village.
You must know what is happening there?
The day you left -- did you notice that winter plum
By my latticed window?  Was it yet in bloom? 

III
Already blossoms climb the winder plum here,
And a bird song is heard once more.
With a sad heart I note the spring grass turning green yet again:
I fear lest it over-grow the marble stairs.

Two Songs of an Autumn Night

I
While the water-clock drops --ting--ting, how long the night!
The moonlight sifts across the earth through scudding clouds,
In the still cool of autumn, the insects' cry persists through the long darkness...
Frost, please stay away! The winter clothing is yet to be sent to the front.(3)

II 
Newly born crescent moon; pale, the autumn mist...
She has not yet changed her silk garments, already far too thin;
Feverishly she plays her silver harp all through the night,
Her heart too full of fear to return to her empty chamber.

On Passing the Monastery of Accumulated Fragrance

Ignorant of the way to the Monastery of Accumulated Fragrance,
I wandered many miles through cloud-caught peaks
And ancient forests, spying no trace of human footstep.
Whence then, the faint peal of a temple bell?
A gurgling stream chokes on treacherous rocks;
The dying sun flicks coldly through the blue pines.
By a quiet pool designed for meditation
I subdue the Poisonous Dragon, passion.(4)

 At Wang-Ch'uan Cottage After Heavy Rain

Smoke curls slowly upward in these deserted mountains after days of desolate rain.
Again the hellebore(3) and the millet are cooked for labourers on the land to the east.
Above the spreading rice-fields a white egret stretches its wings,
And yellow orioles sing within the dark foliage of summer trees...
I practise quietism among these solitary hills and, musing upon the morning hibiscus,  think upon life.
Under the pines I live frugally, munching dewy sunflower seeds,
A wild old man of the mountains, long past desire to compete for official promotion...
Now what right have my only neighbors, the sea gulls, to be shy of me!

I hope you enjoyed this interlude as much as I did.  Unfortunately, even the best translations cannot compare to the breadth of semantic meaning conveyed in the original language, and this is particularly so with Classical Chinese; still, I think that we can take a peek into the perspective of Wang Wei and see how the world might have looked to him. The last poem is, I think, my favorite because it really captures the sense of fully immersing oneself in nature: observing and reveling in the movement of the natural world; peacefully coexisting within one's environment; pondering life whilst surrounded by it... his work really does provoke a certain "psychic reaction".

If you are interested in learning a little more about the poetry of Wang Wei and the process of translation, I recommend checking out the Wang Wei Index -- you can see the works of other Chinese poets as well.

That's all for today, folks.  Next, we re-visit the journey of our brave Prince of Wei and his faithful retainer Hou Ying.

1. This translation is somewhat different from the standard translation.  You might notice that the first two lines of the Classical Chinese version are actually the last two lines of the English translation -- I'm not quite sure why the translators made this decision, although personally I it evokes a stronger emotional reaction.  (For other translations of this poem, please take a look at what Eliot Weinberger and Octavio Paz have to say.)

2. Wang Wei is writing many of these poems from Wang-ch'uan Valley; this is somewhere between the Wang River and a mountain range.  In Wang Wei's self-written forward: "My cottage was in the Wang-ch'uan Valley.  My wanderings included many places: Mêng-ch'eng Valley, Mount Hua-tzǔ, My Study Among the Beautiful Apricot Trees, A Hill of Graceful Bamboo, Deer Forest Hermitage [the setting for the first poem], Magnolia Hermitage, Rivers of Dogwood, A Path Through the Imperial Locust Trees, An Arbour beside the Lake, South Hill, beside Lake Yi, Waves of Willow, At the Rapids of the Luan Family, The Stream of Powdered Gold, White Stone Bank, North Hill, My Hermitage in the Bamboo Grove, Hibiscus Hill, The Lacquer Tree Garden, and the Pepper Tree Garden.  During that period, my good friend P'ei Ti and I composed poems at leisure." Many of the above mentioned places are also the topics of Wang Wei's poems.

3. This poem was likely written during a Mongol invasion -- Wang Wei's allusion to "the front" i.e., the war front, reminds us that China at this time, although prosperous, was not necessarily at peace.  This sense of anxiety -- and perhaps also displacement -- definitely color's his poetry.

4.  What does he mean by this? Passion for what? Wang Wei's devout Buddhist beliefs suggest that he would like to overcome the passion of material desires, but is it that simple?

Bibliography:

Chang, Yin-nan, and Lewis C. Walmsley, trans. Poems by Wang Wei. Rutland: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1958. Print.