The Wang River Poems by Wang Wei and Pei Di

The Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei and his friend Pei Di wrote a series of paired quatrains about twenty sites on Wang's estate near the Wang River.  This "wang" is a different word, written with a different character, than the poet's name. Sometimes it's translated "Wheel River," which seems rather an odd name for a river.  I did come across a note that "wang" means "wheel" by virtue of its root meaning of "turn."  So perhaps a better translation would be "Swirling River" or "Winding River."
     I would like to make my version of all of these forty poems.  I don't know Chinese, so I work mostly from literal translations and commentary.  The majority of Wang's contributions are pretty readily available in some form I can work on.  But those of Pei Di, the less-celebrated poet, are quite scarce. So I haven't tried working on Pei Di yet. In the original Chinese that follows each of my translations, I have included Pei Di's quatrain as well as Wang Wei's. I had literal translations for all of Wang Wei's poems except for numbers 4, 14, 15, 19, and 20.  For all these, I had at least four literary translations and some commentary to work from.  All of my translations are provisional in the sense that I am open to reworking them if I become aware of inaccuracies or misinterpretations.  And this is doubly so for those five poems.
     The collection begins with Wang Wei's own preface.

My country retreat is in the Wang River mountain valley.  There are places for pleasant walks such as Meng Wall, Huazi Hill, White Bamboo Hill, a deer fence, Magnolia Enclosure, a cornel grove, Scholar Tree Path, the lake pavilion, South Hill, Lake Yi, Willow Waves, a rill by the house of the Luans, Gold Dust Spring, White Stone Rapids, North Hill, a bamboo grove, Xinyi Village, the lacquer tree grove, and the pepper garden.

1.
MENG WALL


My new house near the Meng Wall gate.
Ancient willows absorbed in grief.
Who will be the next new owner,
sorrowing over past inhabitants?

     --WW

 

 

The house that was built under the old wall--

sometimes I go up and clamber around

on the ruins of the once-solid past.

Today's men, self-absorbed, go by below.

     --PD

孟城坳

王維：新家孟城口，古木馀衰柳。來者複爲誰，空悲昔人有。
裴迪：結廬古城下，時登古城上。古城非疇昔，今人自來往。

 

     The house newly acquired by Wang Wei had formerly belong to the poet Sung Chih-wen, who died in 712 when Wang Wei was twelve or thirteen.  

2.

HUAZI RIDGE

 

 

Once more, endless flights of departing birds

and autumn coloring hill after hill.

All up and down Huazi Ridge

sadness spreads without limit.

     --WW

 

 

Sun setting, the pine winds rising.

Turning home.  Light dew on the grass.

Cloud light shining in my footsteps,

the blue of the hills on my gown.

     --PD     

      

華子岡

王維：飛鳥去不窮，連山複秋色。上下華子岡，惆悵情何極。
裴迪：落日松風起，還家草露晞。雲光侵履蹟，山翠拂人衣。 

3.
HOUSE OF GRAINY APRICOT WOOD

Beams cut from apricot wood.

Roof woven with fragrant reeds.

Do clouds beneath the ridgepole

float off to rain upon men?

     --WW 

     

 

 

Often ascending the far ridge

to the house of apricot wood,

walking past South Hill and North Lake,

looking forward, then looking back.

     --PD 



杏館

王維：文杏裁爲梁，香茅結爲宇。不知棟里雲，去作人間雨。
裴迪：迢迢文杏館，躋攀日已屢。南嶺與北湖，前看複回顧。 

4.

WHITE BAMBOO HILL

Tall Bamboo, empty river bend,
green image on rippling water.
Enter the hidden Shang Hill path
even woodcutters do not know.

     --WW

 

 

Bright stream both crooked and straight.

Green bamboo all dense and deep.

One path right to the mountain road.

Walk and sing, familiar peaks in sight.

     --PD 

 

 

 

斤竹嶺

王維：檀欒映空曲，青翠漾漣漪。暗入商山路，樵人不可知。
裴迪：明流紆且直，綠筱密複深。一徑通山路，行歌望舊岑。

     Both G.W. Robinson and Pauline Yu state that this poem refers to the "Four Whiteheads," who retired as hermits to Mt. Shang in Shanxi province rather than serve in the government of the first Qin emperor when he came to power in 221 B.C. 

5.

DEER PARK

Empty mountain.

Seeing no one.

Hearing someone's

echoing voice.

The late day sun

enters again

the deep forest,

shining once more

on the green moss.

     --WW

 

 

All day, cold mountain in view

for a lone traveller passing,

knowing nothing of the pine wood,  

nothing but tracks of buck and doe.

     --PD 

 

 

 

鹿柴

王維：空山不見人，但聞人語響。返景入深林，複照青苔上。 
裴迪：日夕見寒山，便爲獨往客。不知深林事，但有麏麚蹟。

      Most commentators think that "empty mountain" refers to the Buddhist concept of emptiness as well as to the absence of people.  Of course, this is a quatrain in the original just like the others.  I just found a structure that worked very well in English.  Violations of the Chinese prosody are inevitable in the transference to English. This one is just more obvious.  I'm pretty sure that it's accurate semantically. This poem is probably the most translated in the Chinese canon.  Here are several other translations for comparison:  https://poetrychina.net/translation/deerpark/4

6.

MAGNOLIA ENCLOSURE

Autumn hills gather waning light.

Back and forth, birds chase through the air.

All things green are suddenly bright.

At sunset, mists are here, then there. 

     --WW

 

 

Blurry in mist, light of the low sun.

Bird calls mingled with rushing water.

Path and stream wind into the distance.

Such is the quiet that has no end.

     --PD 

木蘭柴

王維：秋山斂馀照，飛鳥逐前侶。彩翠時分明，夕嵐無處所。

裴迪：蒼蒼落日時，鳥聲亂溪水。緣溪路轉深，幽興何時已。 

7.
CORNEL GROVE

Their berries are both red and green

as if the trees were blooming still.

Should a guest linger on the hill,

set out a cup of cornel wine.

     --WW

 

 

Scent mingling with cassia and pepper,

the cornels' leaves wave among tall bamboo.

Light of the setting sun filters through clouds.

In the wood, darkness falls, a chill rises.

     --PD 

 

 

 

茱萸沜

王維：結實紅且綠，複如花更開。山中儻留客，置此芙蓉杯。 
裴迪：飄香亂椒桂，布葉間檀欒。雲日雖回照，森沉猶自寒。 

     I found this poem confusing in both the literal and literary translations that I found, so I did a little research on what a cornel might be.  Some translations have "dogwood" in both the title and last line, some "cornel" in both, and some "dogwood" in one place and "cornel" in the other.  Sometimes "dogwood" and "cornel" seem to be referring to the same thing and sometimes a cornel seems to be some structure that is part of a dogwood tree. I found that the genus name for all species of dogwood is "cornus," and so a dogwood tree can also be called a cornel.  The fruits of the dogwood are sometimes called cornelian cherries.  One problem was that initially I found references to only American, European, and West Asian dogwoods.  But eventually I found a discussion of an East Asian dogwood, "cornus kousa."  It flowers throughout the summer and produces a sweet red berry that can be made into wine.

     With this information, then, I thought I could make sense of the poem.  Because the tree blooms over a long period, it would naturally have red and green--ripe and unripe--fruit and pretty flowers all at the same time. Following on this notion, at first I wanted to translate the second line "and still the trees are flowering," but every source I've found agrees that there's something in the second line that should be translated "as if."  So perhaps it more likely means that the berries make the tree so colorful that it looks from a distance like it were still flowering.  Which is why I settled on "as if the trees were blooming still."  Looking at other versions, I have a feeling that the translators weren't really sure what "dogwood cup" or "cornel cup" in the original Chinese should mean.  My best guess is that it refers to a cup of cornelian cherry wine.  So for clarity in my own cultural context I added the word "wine" which is not there explicitly in the Chinese.

8.
SCHOLAR TREE PATH

Through scholar trees, a dim, narrow path,

the dark, mossy way to the temple.

Sweep the entrance and wait by the gate

in case a monk comes down from the hill.

     --WW

 

 

From south of the gate, the scholar trees

line the path leading down to Lake Yi.

Autumn in the mountains--heavy rains

and fallen leaves that remain unswept.

     --PD 

宮槐陌

王維：仄徑蔭宮槐，幽陰多綠苔。應門但迎掃，畏有山僧來。

裴迪：門前宮槐陌，是向欹湖道。秋來山雨多，落葉無人掃。 

     The word here translated as "temple" seems actually to mean "palace."  Whether there is a recognized secondary meaning "temple" I don't know.  Some translators see it that way and it certainly makes more sense as far as I can see.  It is not explicit in the original whether the palace/temple is at the bottom or top of the hill.  I believe the most likely interpretation is that there is some kind of residence at the base of a hill and a path that leads up the hill to a temple--and that is the reading that informs my translation.  I don't think it likely that any structure on Wang's estate would be called a palace.  His own dwelling is presumably the grandest and is generally referred to in translation as "house" or "villa."  If there is a temple at the top of a hill, it's more plausible that one might be on the lookout for a monk to come down.  

9.

THE LAKE PAVILION

A small boat to greet honored guests.

Slowly coming across the lake.

At the railing with cups of wine.

Lotus flowers blooming all around.

     --WW

 

 

The window is full of the waves of the lake.

The solitary moon ceaselessly wanders.

The cries of gibbons rise from the gorge

and enter the room borne on the wind.

     --PD 

臨湖亭

王維：輕舸迎上客，悠悠湖上來。當軒對尊酒，四面芙蓉開。 
裴迪：當軒彌滉漾，孤月正裴回。穀口猿聲發，風傳入戶來。 

10.

SOUTH HILL

On a light boat, going out from South Hill.

To North Hill, hard to cross the wide water.

On the distant shore, people and houses.

So far off, I can't know if I know them.

     --WW

 

 

A single boat moors to leeward.

At South Hill, lake waters lap the bank.

As the sun sets behind Mount Yenzu,

clear ripples fade into the distance.

     --PD 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

南垞

王維：輕舟南垞去，北垞淼難即。隔浦望人家，遙遙不相識。
裴迪：孤舟信一泊，南垞湖水岸。落日下崦嵫，清波殊淼漫。 

11.

LAKE YI

Your flute precedes you to the farther shore

as I see you off at sunset.

From the lake you turn your head back

to green mountains and rolling white clouds.

     --WW

The lake, limitless into emptiness,

water and sky merging in dazzling blue.

Give a long whistle and moor the boat.

From all directions,  clear breezes blow. 

     --PD

欹湖
王維：吹簫凌極浦，日暮送夫君。湖上一回首，青山卷白雲。 
裴迪：空闊湖水廣，青熒天色同。艤舟一長嘯，四面來清風。 

12.

WILLOW WAVES

Beautiful, these trees standing in rows,

their reflections cast in clear ripples,

and, unlike willows by palace moats,

not grieving their parting in spring wind.

     --WW

 

 

One hue, the pond and the reflections of willows

that rustle like silk on wind-blown ripples.

Such a fine place here for the weaving of shadows--

no need, then, for us to thank Master Tao.

     --PD 

柳浪

王維：分行接綺樹，倒影入清漪。不學禦溝上，春風傷别離。 
裴迪：映池同一色，逐吹散如絲。結陰既得地，何謝陶家時。 

     The custom of giving a willow thread to someone going away was a staple of Chinese poetry.  And, according to G.W. Robinson in his collection of Wang Wei's poems, partings were often depicted as taking place at a palace moat.  My rendering here is another that is especially provisional because I had only several literary translations to compare and so far have been unable to find a word-for-word translation.

13.
RILL BY THE HOUSE OF THE LUANS

Hard wind blows through autumn rain.

Shallow rills flow over rocks.

Water beads splash against each other.

White egret starts, then settles back.

     --WW

The sound of the rapids drifts far down the stream.

Walking along the bank toward the south ford--

ducks and gulls fly and float around the water,

at times making an approach to us humans.

     --PD

     

欒家瀨

王維：颯颯秋雨中，淺淺石溜瀉。跳波自相濺，白鷺驚複下。 
裴迪：瀨聲喧極浦，沿涉向南津。泛泛鷗鳧渡，時時欲近人。 

     Perhaps it would be interesting to see the what the literal translations that I work from look like.

The first is by Wai-Lim Yip and the other by Hugh Grigg from his blog, East Asia Student.  I have followed Yip in using "rill" rather than "rapids."  I assume that Yip chooses "rill" to fit better with what he gives as "lightly-lightly" or "shallow-shallow" and Grigg as "trickle trickle," a rill being a small, shallow stream.  For consistency, I think, Yip also changes "waves" to "beads" in his more literary translation.  Hard to imagine waves crashing into each

other on a rill. And to say a wave jumps seems odd--a more natural description of the water splashing up as raindrops hit a small stream.  Probably out of context "rapids" and "waves" are the best translations of the original Chinese, but within the poem, plausible secondary meanings work better.  All that said, now I've come across a translation of the accompanying poem about the same location by Pei Di that refers to a river.  So maybe Mr. Yip and I are all wet.

Rill of the House of the Luans

Blast-blast __ autumn  rain  middle
Lightly-lightly/shallow-shallow __ rock flow pour
Jump wave/s  self  mutual/each other  splash
White  egret  startle  again  down

LUAN FAMILY RAPIDS

swish swish autumn rain in
trickle trickle stone slip slide
jump wave self each-other splash
white egret startle return descend

14.

GOLD DUST SPRING

Drink each day from Gold Dust Spring,

live for more than a thousand years.

Then in the Green Phoenix Car drawn by striped dragons,

go with plumes and tassels to the Jade Emperor.

     --WW

Drifting and stopping, too deep to flow.

Gold and jade, there for the taking.

Greet dawn with mouth a silken flower.

Go alone to fetch morning water.

     --PD

金屑泉

王維：日飲金屑泉，少當千馀歲。翠鳳翊文螭，羽節朝玉帝。 
裴迪：縈渟澹不流，金碧如可拾。迎晨含素華，獨往事朝汲。 

     A daily drink of powdered gold or jade was supposed to give one health and longevity.  According to G.W. Robinson, the Green Phoenix Car belonged to the mother of the King of the West, one of the Daoist immortals, and the Jade Emperor was the supreme deity in popular Daoism.  The color word here rendered as "green" appears as "azure," "green," or "sky-blue" in other translations.  I think what's going on is that there is a word in Chinese, or at least in the Chinese of this era, that refers to a larger portion of the spectrum than any English color word.  I am myself familiar with an example from one other language:  In Khmer the spectrum is divided into two parts, khiew and krahaam.  Khiew is generally translated as blue, and krahaam as red.  And there are many color words with narrower reference.

15.
WHITE STONE RAPIDS


Clear and shallow, White Stone Rapids.
Green rushes, just out of sight.
Folks from east and west of the river
washing silk brilliant in moonlight.

     --WW

Stand on stones, look at the water-

boundless joy, the play of the waves.

Cold sundown falls on the river.

Floating clouds, featureless and white.

     --PD

白石灘

王維：清淺白石灘，綠蒲向堪把。家住水東西，浣紗明月下。
裴迪：跂石複臨水，弄波情未極。日下川上寒，浮雲澹無色。

     Chinese uses the copula "to be" much less often than English, so that sometimes in a fully grammatical statement there is nothing English speakers would recognize as a verb.  But in resisting the temptation to insert a verb to make the English sentence "complete," one can preserve an element of Chinese prosody and so retain fidelity to the original in two ways.  In five-syllable lines such as make up all these quatrains, it was the rule to have a phrase structure of two syllables then three syllables with a natural pause or "caesura" in between.  Leaving out a linking verb between subject and predicate will often produce a natural pause, which can be represented by a comma as in the first two lines here.  I am unable to produce this effect consistently and it would probably sound odd in English anyway.  When rendered orally, Chinese poems were neither declaimed nor spoken conversationally, but chanted, with the pattern in five-syllable-line poems being da da, da da da/da da, da da da...

 
 

16.
NORTH HILL

At North Hill, north of the lake,

a red railing bright between trees.

South River winds through green woods,

flashing in and out of sight.

     --WW

On the hill north of South Mountain

a thatched hut overlooks Lake Yi.

When it's time to gather firewood,

a flat boat comes out of the reeds.

     --PD

北垞

王維：北垞湖水北，雜樹映朱闌。逶迤南川水，明滅青林端。 
裴迪：南山北垞下，結宇臨欹湖。每欲采樵去，扁舟出菰蒲。 

There is perhaps a parallel between the railing and the river as continuous things that appear discontinuous.

17.
BAMBOO GROVE

Picking out tunes on my lute,

whistling a bit of something,

I sit here in so much light,

alone and facing the moon.

     --WW

Daily coming to the bamboo grove,

daily coming closer to the Way.

There and back, only the mountain birds.

Deep in solitude--no men, no world.

     --PD

竹里館

王維：獨坐幽篁里，彈琴複長嘯。深林人不知，明月來相照。 
裴迪：來過竹里館，日與道相親。出入唯山鳥，幽深無世人。 

18.
XINYI VILLAGE

Limbs, branches, hibiscus flowers.

Throughout the hills, their red calyces.

House by the stream, stillness, and no one.

All around, all blooming and falling.

     --WW

The green banks are thick with spring grass.

The princely one lingers alone.

And there are xinyi flowers,

their color mingling with hibiscus.

     --PD

辛夷塢

王維：木末芙蓉花，山中發紅萼。澗戶寂無人，紛紛開且落。 
裴迪：綠堤春草合，王孫自留玩。況有辛夷花，色與芙蓉亂。 

In the first line, translations that I found had either "lotus," "water lily," or "hibiscus."  The first two being water plants, I chose "hibiscus," a flowering tree.  A bit of research found that the hibiscus flower does indeed have deep red calyces.  Calyces are the strips just under the petals that are the split remnants of the casing that encloses a flower before it blooms. However, Pauline Yu says that this poem alludes to a passage in one of the poems in the ancient anthology, The Songs of the South, the hopelessness of meeting a goddess is compared to finding figs in the water or lotuses on trees.  From this perspective, though, I'm not sure how the red calyces--or stems, as sometimes translated--are the right color for either magnolias or lotuses.  Anyway, here's a version of the poem according to the lotus hypothesis:

MAGNOLIA BANK

Trees, branches tipped with lotus flowers.

Throughout the hills, their red calyces.

House by the stream, stillness, and no one.

All around, all blooming and falling.   

19.

LACQUER TREE GROVE

The old sage, not overreaching,

no thought to bestride the world.

Holding just a minor post,

lord of a few swaying trees.

     --WW

Love of leisure is in my nature

and has only grown through my life.

Today, ambling through the lacquer trees,

the old joy of Zhuangzi lives in me.

     --PD

漆園

王維：古人非傲吏，自闕經世務。偶寄一微官，婆娑數株樹。 
裴迪：好閑早成性，果此諧宿諾。今日漆園游，還同莊叟樂。 

The "old sage" here is Zhuangzi, the semi-legendary Daoist philosopher, he of the butterfly dream.  In his companion piece, Pei Di refers to Zhuangzi explicitly.  Although he was mostly a hermit, Zhuangzi at one time was Superintendent of the Lacquer Tree Grove and turned down an offer from the King of Chu to be a minister of state. All of my translations are provisional, in the sense that I am open to reworking them if I become aware of inaccuracies or misinterpretations.  But this one is doubly so, because I have been unable to find a literal translation and worked from several divergent literary translations.

20.
PEPPER GARDEN


Cassia wine to greet the Child of Heaven.
Mallow flowers bestowed on the lovely one.
Pepper-spiced libations on the jeweled mat.
All to draw down the Lord Among the Clouds. 

     --WW

Scarlet thorns will catch at your clothes,

but sweet scents follow as you pass through.

Fine herbs and spices to cook with--

feel free to bend down and pick some.

     --PD

首·椒園

王維：桂尊迎帝子，杜若贈佳人。椒漿奠瑤席，欲下雲中君。 

裴迪：丹刺罥人衣，t芳香留過客。幸堪調鼎用，願君垂采摘。

    Thinking about the pepper garden presumably reminded Wang Wei of a reference to pepper sauce or pepper broth in the Nine Songs, a collection of shamans' invocations of the gods included in the ancient anthology "Songs of the South."  And then he included a reference to the Nine Songs in each of the four lines.