Here, beside a clear deep lake, You live accompanied by clouds; Or soft through the pine the moon arrives To be your own pure-hearted friend. You rest under thatch in the shadow of your fl.owers, Your dewy herbs fl.ourish in their bed of moss. Let me leave the world. Let me alight, like you, On your western mountain with phrenixes and cranes.
Original Poem:
「宿王昌龄隐居」
清溪深不测，隐处唯孤云。
松际露微月，清光犹为君。
茅亭宿花影，药院滋苔纹。
余亦谢时去，西山鸾鹤群。
Interpretation:
Chang Jian and Wang Chang Ling, another famous poet, were good friends who were admitted to the same class in the 15th year of Emperor Xuanzong’s reign (727), but they had different destinations after their careers. Although Wang Changling had a difficult career, he did not retire. This poem was written at the residence of Wang Changling before he resigned from the government and returned to seclusion. Wang Changling was about thirty-seven years old at the time of his graduation, and before that, he had lived in seclusion in Shimen Mountain, which is located in Huangshan County, Anhui Province, where the poem says “Qingxi”.
The Xuyi area, where Changjian worked, and Shimen Mountain are located north and south of the Huai River. When he resigned from his official position and returned to Fanshan in Wuchang, he probably took a short detour across the Huai River and visited Shimen Mountain.
Chang Jian (常建, 708-765 AD), probably a native of Chang’an (now Xi’an, Shaanxi), was a poet of the Tang Dynasty. In the 15th year of the Kaiyuan era (727 AD), he was admitted to the same list as Wang Changling, but he was unhappy with his career and lived a long life of wandering in the mountains and scenic spots. Later, he moved home and lived in seclusion in Ezhu. In the middle of Tianbao, he served as a lieutenant of Xuyi. Chang Jian’s surviving literary works are few, but his poem “A Buddhist Retreat behind Broken-Mountain Temple” is more famous.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
