Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Poems of Wang Wei
by Wang
University Press of New England, 1992
eISBN: 978-1-68458-194-8 | Paper: 978-0-87451-564-0
Library of Congress Classification PL2676.A226 1991
Dewey Decimal Classification 895.113
eISBN: 978-1-68458-194-8 | Paper: 978-0-87451-564-0
Library of Congress Classification PL2676.A226 1991
Dewey Decimal Classification 895.113
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Wang Wei was one of the most celebrated poets of China's Tang Dynasty (618-907). An influential painter and practitioner of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, many of his poems contain concise and evocative descriptions of nature whose elegant minimalism offers subtle expression of a transcendence from everyday life. While this purity of poetic expression is what Wang Wei's reputation is built upon, he lived a courtly life of highs and lows in a tumultuous era, suffering demotions and exile, imprisonment and rehabilitation, all of which are evidenced in his verse. Wang Wei's poems grapple with the trappings of worldly life and the quest for enlightenment, painting a complex picture of both his psyche and his Chan discipline. Laughing Lost in the Mountains includes translations of poems running the spectrum of Wang Wei's subjects, as well as an extensive introduction that sheds light on Wang Wei's craft, spirituality, and historical context.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
WILLIS BARNSTONE is Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University. Author of numerous books, including literary criticism and his own poetry, he has translated poetry from ancient Greek, Spanish, and Chinese. His books From This White Island (1960) and China Poems (1976) were each nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
TONY BARNSTONE is a graduate student in English literature at the University of California, Berkeley. His translations from Chinese and Spanish have appeared in such publications as American Poetry Review and Nimrod.
XU HAIXIN is a prolific translator in both Chinese and English.
TONY BARNSTONE is a graduate student in English literature at the University of California, Berkeley. His translations from Chinese and Spanish have appeared in such publications as American Poetry Review and Nimrod.
XU HAIXIN is a prolific translator in both Chinese and English.
REVIEWS
“Wang Wei ranks with Li Po and Tu Fu and Po Chu-i—among the very greatest poets of T’ang dynasty China. He is the master of ‘impersonality,’ often completely disappearing into his poems of nature. His poetry is a record of a long struggle to be free of desire, free even of the desire to be free. This translation captures the sense of uncluttered aloneness—completeness—found in the original, the deceptive apparent ease of Wang’s poems as a whole. Laughing Lost in the Mountains is refreshing, the best Wang Wei available in English.” —Sam Hamill
“Nothing close to this work has been done on Wang Wei. It is more than just a fine translation of the works of a major figure in world literature. It makes its own context.” —J. P. Seaton
“The Barnstone translations read like poems in English, important poems, and consistently so. Through their illuminating study—the best examination of Wang Wei in English—and their translations, the Barnstones have established for our generation a new model of rendering a major Chinese poet in English. We have a world poet who at last has a consummate form in English.” —Anthony Kerrigan
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Acknowledgments
Empty Mountain
Nature and Vision
The Old Man in the Mountain
Deep Nature in the West and a Chinese Paysage of Symbols
An Uneventful Life
The Cult of Friendship
The An Lushan Rebellion
The Music of a Silence
Taoism and Chan Buddhism
La Musica Call ada of St. John of the Cross
Poetics of Impersonality and a Personal Poet
Wang Wei In China and Our Translation
Translation: The Art of Possibility
A Hermit In the Mountains
My Cottage at Deep South Mountain
Written in the Mountains in Early Autumn
Deep South Mountain
Sketching Things
Living in the Mountain on an Autumn Night
Climbing the City Tower North of the River
From Dasan Pass, Going Through Shaggy Forests and Dense Bamboo, Climbing Paths Winding for Forty or Fifty Miles to Yellow Ox Peak Where I See Yellow Flower River Shining
Written in My Garden in the Spring
Autumn Night Sitting Alone, Thinking Of My Brother-in-Law Cui
Drifting on the Lake
Lodging at Master Dao Yi's Mountain Chamber
Stone Gate Temple in the Blue Field Mountains
From Ascetic Wang Wei to Hungry Zhang Yin
Inspired by the Mountains Around Us I Write For Brother Cui Jizhong of Puyang
Written on a Rainy Autumn Night After Pei Di's Visit
Cooling Off
A Picture of Mountain Life
Writing on a Piece of Shale
East River Moon
About Old Age, in Answer to a Poem by Subprefect Zhang
Answering the Poem Su Left in My Blue Field Mountain Country House, on Visiting and Finding Me Not Home
The Wang River Sequence and Other Poems
Grainy Apricot Wood Cottage
At Lake Yi
White Pebble Shoal
Magnolia Basin
Return to Wang River
To Pei Di, While We Are Living Lazily at Wang River
Living Lazily by the Wang River
Leaving Wang River Estate
Appreciating the Visit of a Few Friends at a Time When I Left My Official Post and Lived in My Wang River Estate
Poems Written at Huangfu Vue's Cloud Valley Estate
Lotus Flower Pier
Duckweed Pond
A Reluctant Official at the Emperor's Court
To My Cousin Qiu, Military Supply Official
On the Way to Morning Audience
Spring Night at Bamboo Pavilion, Presenting a Poem To Subprefect Qian about His Staying for Good in Blue Field Mountains
On Being Demoted and Sent Away to Qizhou
For Zhang, Exiled inJingzhou, Once Advisor to the Emperor
Goodbye to Wei, District Magistrate of Fang cheng, on His Way to Remote Chu
Seeing Off Prefect Ji Mu as He Leaves Office and Goes East of the River
Winter Night, Writing about My Emotion
Written for He the Fourth in Return for a Country Cotton Wrap-Around Hat
Saying Goodbye to a Friend Returning to the Mountains
Saying Goodbye to Qui Wei Who Failed His Exam and Returns East of the Yangzi River
The Emperor Commands a Poem Be Written and Sent to My Friend, the Prefect Wei Xi
Saying Goodbye to Ji Mu Qian Who Failed His Exam and Is Going Home
The Mountain Dwelling of Official Wei
Looking into the Distance and Missing My Home at West Building with Official Wu Lang
While I Was a Prisoner in Puti Monastery, Pei Di Came to Visit. He Told Me How the Rebels Forced the Court Musicians to Play at Frozen Emerald Pond. They Sang, and When I Heard This, My Tears Fell. Secretly I Composed These Verses and Gave Them to Pei Di.
Ding Yu's Farm
Visiting Jia's Chamber on Mount Tai Yi
For Official Guo to Whom I Relate the Routine of My Life
Upon Leaving Monk Wengu of the Mountains and Thoughts to My Younger Brother Jin
Frontier Poems
Saying Goodbye to Ping Danran, Overseer
Song of Marching with the Army
At the Frontier
Watching the Hunt
Seeing Prefect Liu Off to Anxi
On Being an Envoy to the Frontier
The Envoy at Yu Ling
A Tang General Sallies into the Wilderness Beyond Mount Yanzhi to Battle Against the Barbarians
Frontier Songs
An Old General, on Long Mountain, Complains
Missing Her Husband on an Autumn Night
Departures and Separations
Seeing Prefect Yang Off to Guozhou
A Farewell
Staying Only One Day at Zhengzhou
Seeing a Friend About to Return to the South
Thoughts from a Harbor on the Yellow River
Missing the Loved One
For Zu the Third
Seeing Zhao Heng Off to Japan
Morning, Sailing into Xinyang
Weeping for Meng Haoran
Arriving at Ba Gorge in the Morning
Waiting for Official Qu Guangxi Who Doesn't Show Up
For Scholar Xu Who Came to Visit Me and Found Me Away
Sailing at Night beyond Jingkou Dike
Night over the Huai River
Night over the Huai River
Rice Paddies and Pomegranates
Countryside at Qi River
Joy in the Countryside
Saying Goodbye to Spring
A Peasant Family
Song of Peach Tree Spring
Things in a Spring Garden
Peasants on Wei River
Sharp Landscape after the Storm
Going Back to Song Mountain
Walking into the Liang Countryside
Welcoming the Goddess
Saying Goodbye to the Goddess
For Pei Di, Tenth Brother in His Family
A White Turtle under a Waterfall
A Visit to Our Village by Governor Zheng of Guozhou
Spring Outing
Caught in Rain on a Mountain Walk
Portraits
A Drunken Poet
The Madman of Chu
Lady Xi
Song about Xi Shi
Lady Ban
An Old Farmer
Dancing Woman, Cockfighter Husband, and the Impoverished Sage
A Wealthy Woman ofLuoyang
For Taoist Master Jiao in the East Mountains
Meditating Beyond White Clouds
Sitting Alone on an Autumn Night
Visiting the Temple of Gathered Fragrance
The Stillness of Meditation
In a Monk's Room in Spring
A Summer Day, Visiting Zen Master Cao at Green Dragon Monastery
Visiting the Cloister of Meditation Master Fu
For Official Yang Who Stayed at Night at Zither Terrace and in the Morning Climbed to the Pavilion of Storing Books and Then Quickly Wrote Me a Poem
Message for a Monk at Chongfan Monastery
To the Host in the Place of the Thousand Pagodas
Visiting Li Ji
Visiting Old Man Zhao in Jizhou and Having a Meal with Him
Green Creek
Seeing Taoist Fang Off to the Song Mountain Region
For a Monk from Fufu Mountain I Offer This Poem While We Are Eating Dinner
Visiting the Mountain Courtyard of the Distinguished Monk Tanxing at Enlightenment Monastery
Visiting Li, a Mountain Man, and Writing This Poem on the Wall of His Home
Winter Night, Facing the Snow, Thinking of the House of the Lay Buddhist Hu
For Zhang Yin, a Friend like a Fifth Younger Brother, Here Is a Fantasy Poem
In the Mountain Dwelling of Scholar Li
Visiting Zen Master Xiao at His Song Mountain Chamber
With My Friends at the Sutra-Reading Bamboo Garden of Advisor Shen the Fourteenth Where Young Shoots Abound
Moaning about My White Hair
Weeping for Ying Yao
Questioning a Dream
Visiting Official Lu While He Was Entertaining Monks and Writing a Poem Together
Suffering from Heat
Floating on the Han River
Escaping with the Hermit Zhang Yin
Notes to the Introduction
Notes to the Poems
Works Cited
Bibliography
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