Where tender grasses rim the stream
And deep boughs trill with mango-birds,
On the spring flood of last night's rain
The ferry-boat moves as though someone were poling.
Original Poem:
「滁州西涧」
韦应物
独怜幽草涧边生， 上有黄鹂深树鸣。
春潮带雨晚来急， 野渡无人舟自横。
Interpretation:
This is a famous landscape poem written by the poet during his tenure in Chuzhou in 781 A.D., when he traveled to the stream between two mountains in the western countryside of Chuzhou city in spring. The poet writes about the late spring tour of the western stream to enjoy the scenery and the evening rain crossing seen, calm mind and sad feelings in the poem to get the natural flow.
The first two lines: I only like the weeds growing in the valley by the stream, and the oriole crying in the depths of the trees.
The poet does not write about the peach and willow green in spring, but only likes this quiet and lively scenery, revealing the poet's desire for a clean and honest life and a life of seclusion. Then the poet from the visual and auditory aspects to sketch, deep in the dense trees, oriole singing a pleasant song.
After two lines: in the evening, the spring tide rises, spring rain, the water of the Western Stream suddenly see turbulence, no one in the wilderness ferry, only a small boat leisurely across the water.
Write what you see and hear in the rain. Spring tide with rain, the night rush up; ferry no one of the boat, alone across the river. Evening tide with spring rain, the water is more rapid, if in the main road, it is when the ferry is used; and suburban ferry, pedestrians were not much, at this moment even more no one, the boatman also went home, the empty ferry only leisurely indifference.
Poet in the career, the disease of the people living in poverty, have the will to reform and powerless, want to return to seclusion but can not, often by the service, retreat troubled, but not into the retreat, let nature take its course. Poets think of going back to seclusion, their own inaction, just like the water when the boat across the wild.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Wei Yingwu (韦应物), circa 737 - 786, was a native of Chang'an, Beijing. His poems were collected in the Wei Suzhou Collection, which included poems concerned with the plight of the people, expressions of disobedience to the times and indignation against the world, and descriptions of idyllic landscapes, etc., of which the ones describing idyllic landscapes are the most famous, and have been sung by posterity in particular.
