The simplicity of this poem gives scope for mindfulness. His works often take a Buddhist perspective, combining an attention to the beauties of nature with an awareness of sensory illusion.Concise, powerful, and lovely-good choice for sharing. A painter, calligrapher and musician as well as being one of the greatest High Tang poets. A painter as well as a poet, he is known above all for his miniaturist celebrations of nature.

No-one knows how to reach that immortal place.Ībout the poet: Wang Wei is one of the three most admired Tang dynasty poets, alongside Du Fu and Li Bai. Spring comes, and all again is peach blossom and water, Now he faced only the great mountain where he remembered the entrance,Įach time he followed the clear stream, he found only cloud and forest.

Who could know the hills and gullies had now completely changed? He left that land, but its hills and rivers never left his heart,Įventually he again set out, and planned to journey back.īy memory, he passed along the way he'd taken before, The fisher's worldly heart could not stop thinking of his home. Who would not doubt that magic place so hard to find, In that valley they knew nothing of the way we live outside,įrom within our world we gaze afar at empty clouds and hills. They live as if become immortals, no reason now to return. To escape the troubled world they had first left men's society, They competed to invite him in and ask about his home.Īs brightness came, the lanes had all been swept of blossom,īy dusk, along the water the fishers and woodsmen returned. Startled to find a stranger amongst them, the people jostled around, When the sun started to shine through the clouds, the chickens and dogs gave voice. The people lived together on uplands above Wu Ling river,Īpart from the outside world they laid their fields and plantations.īelow the pines and the bright moon, all was quiet in the houses, The inhabitants' dress was unchanged since the time of Qin. Nearby amongst a thousand homes flowers and bamboo were scattered.Ī wood-gatherer was the first to speak a Han-era name, In the distance he saw clouds and trees gathered together, Then finding a crack in the hillside, he squeezed through the deepest of caves,Īnd beyond the mountain a vista opened of flat land all about! He travelled to the end of the blue stream, seeing no man on the way. He knew not how far he sailed, gazing at the reddened trees, A fisher's boat chased the water into the coveted hills,īoth banks were covered in peach blossom at the ancient river crossing.

Wang wei poems in chinese