– for Bachelor of Letters Pei Di
By Wang Wei
(translated by Denis Mair)
Cold…mountains…turning…dusky green
Autumn…waters…day by day…purling
Leaning…on my staff…outside…the brushwood gate
Into…the wind…I listen to…evening…cicadas
Over…the river crossing…poises…the setting…sun
Above…the lane…rises… a lone…smoke column
Again…I encounter…Jie Yu (the mad recluse) …drunk [1]
Crazily…singing…in front of…Five…Willows [2]
Notes on “Written for Pei Di”:
[1] Jie Yu was a mad hermit who ridiculed Confucius. Confucius was trying to find a hospitable patron in the state of Chu when he ran into Jie Yu along a rural road. The hermit sang this song: “Phoenix! My sagely Phoenix. How has Virtue withered away to this point? What happened cannot be changed. The future is for us to make. Give up searching for a high position That is where the gravest danger lies! ” Although Wang Wei and Pei Di lived long after Confucius, Wang Wei uses the name “Jie Yu” as an affectionate reference to his friend Pei Di, to convey something of Pei Di’s character. (Pei Di lived in the vicinity of Wang Wei’s vacation house in Wangchuan.)
[2] The Jin era poet Tao Qian wrote a autobiographical essay referring to himself as “Gentleman of the Five Willows, ” portraying himself as someone who endured straitened circumstances so he could study the classics and follow his ideals. Friends who knew his taste for the jug occasionally brought him wine. He named himself after the five willows that grew in front of his cottage. Here the Tang poet Wang Wei uses ‘Five Willows’ to describe his own house. In other words, Wang’s own retreat house at Wangchuan is the sort of place Tao Qian would have been content in.
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