The woods have stored the rain, and slow comes the smoke
As rice is cooked on faggots and carried to the fields;
Over the quiet marsh-land flies a white egret,
And mango-birds are singing in the full summer trees....
I have learned to watch in peace the mountain morningglories,
To eat split dewy sunflower-seeds under a bough of pine,
To yield the post of honour to any boor at all....
Why should I frighten sea gulls, even with a thought?
Original Poem:
「积雨辋川庄作」
王维
积雨空林烟火迟， 蒸藜炊黍饷东灾。
漠漠水田飞白鹭， 阴阴夏木啭黄鹂。
山中习静观朝槿， 松下清斋折露葵。
野老与人争席罢， 海鸥何事更相疑？
Interpretation:
This poem was written by Wang Wei during his seclusion in Rim Chuan Lantian, and this poem is one of his masterpieces. The whole poem is intended to describe the scenery of Rim Chuan Village after the accumulation of rain, and recount the leisurely mood after retiring.
The first couplet describes the leisurely life in the field, which is what the poet saw when he was watching from the mountain. The rainy days have made the branches of the trees and the air extremely humid, so the fireworks are not easy to burn, and the image shows that in such humid air, the smoke rises slowly and stagnantly. Village women are busy steaming quinoa cooking millet for the east side of the field labor men to send food, pointing out the origin of the smoke.
The third line describes the desert plains, the flight of egrets, the deep mountains and dense forests, the oriole singing, the rims of the river after the cumulative rain, the painting is full of color. The paddy fields and summer trees form a green background, while “egrets” and “orioles” paint a few strokes of white and yellow for this green, the colors are extremely vivid, and it seems that you can still hear the “oriole’s” gentle cries. It seems that you can still hear the oriole’s cries.
The neck line describes the poet alone in the empty mountains, secluded under the pine forest, watching the early opening and late thanks to the hibiscus and realize the shortness of life. The poet is in the pine forest, eating dew and sunflower, to avoid the chaos of the world.
The last line, the wild old man is the poet called himself, here even use two allusions, the poet’s mood of indifference to fame and fortune.
The whole poem has eight lines, the first four lines of the quiet observation of the scene, the last four lines of the poet’s secluded life, the rim of the mountain scenery and his own secluded life, a distinctive image, the rhythm of the faraway, showing the poet with the world, natural and indifferent to the freedom of life.
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.
