The mountains are cold and blue now
And the autumn waters have run all day.
By my thatch door, leaning on my staff,
I listen to cicadas in the evening wind.
Sunset lingers at the ferry,
Supper-smoke floats up from the houses.
...Oh, when shall I pledge the great Hermit again
And sing a wild poem at Five Willows?
Original Poem:
「辋川闲居赠裴秀才迪」
王维
寒山转苍翠， 秋水日潺湲。
倚杖柴门外， 临风听暮蝉。
渡头余落日， 墟里上孤烟。
复值接舆醉， 狂歌五柳前。
Interpretation:
This poem is a poem he wrote with Peidi, and it expresses the interest of this period of life.
The first line points out the season, the day is getting late, the mountain color is slowly “turning” deep. The river flows quietly day after day in the cold fall, adding to the beauty of the action.
In the third line, the author creates a self-image of seclusion. Wang Wei was not yet over fifty years old, so he did not yet need to use his staff, but the action of “leaning on his staff” well shows Wang Wei’s depressed and retired mindset at that time. The word “Chaimen”, on the other hand, hints at the meaning of seclusion in the countryside. Leaning on his staff, facing the wind, listening to the faint autumn cicadas whimpering in the wind, and behind him is a wooden door, and perhaps a hut – the poet well shaped the image of a hermit in the countryside.
Then he writes about the scenery. These two lines are famous lines that have been recited through the ages. While the ferry is in the water, the market is in the land, the sunset is a natural landscape, the lonely smoke is a man-made scene, depicting the common countryside fields at sunset, but the selection of scenery but see the heart. Wang Wei is a famous landscape painter, a keen sense of scenery, meticulous observation, good at catching the scenery of the most beautiful, most moving moment.
The last line is about people. Here the author uses an allusion to compare Pei Di to Chu Maniac Jieyu, which not only describes Pei Di’s drunken singing, but also shows that the author thinks that Pei Di’s thoughts are just like Chu Maniac Jieyu’s, defying the holy way and transcending the world, and is not without appreciation.
In this five-character poem, the first line and the neck line are about scenery, depicting the twilight of late autumn in the landscape near Rim River; the last line and the third line are about people, portraying the image of Wang Wei and Pei Di as two hermits. The scenery and characters are alternately written in contrast to each other, forming an artistic realm where things and I are one and the scene is blended, and the poet’s joy of living in idleness and his deep friendship with his friends with similar interests are extremely well written.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Wang Wei (王维), 701-761 A.D., was a native of Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. Wang Wei was a poet of landscape and idylls. His poems of landscape and idylls, with far-reaching images and mysterious meanings, were widely loved by readers in later generations, but Wang Wei never really became a man of landscape and idylls.
