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Meng, Haoran

(Xiangyang, Hubei 689-740) : Dichter

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Index of Names : China / Literature : China / Periods : China : Tang (618-906)

Chronology Entries (3)

# Year Text Linked Data
1 1907-1908 Das Lied von der Erde von Gustav Mahler enthält folgende Gedichte von Hans Bethge.
Li, Bo. Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde.
Zhang, Ji. Der Einsame im Herbst.
Li, Bo. Von der Jugend.
Li, Bo. Von der Schönheit.
Li, Bo. Der Trunkene im Frühling.
Meng, Haoran ; Wang, Wei. Der Abschied.
  • Document: Jiang, Yimin. Die chinesische Flöte von Hans Bethge und Das Lied der Erde von Gustav Mahler : vom Textverständnis bei der Rückübersetzung. In : Ostasienrezeption zwischen Klischee und Innovation. (Geb1) (JiaY1, Publication)
  • Person: Bethge, Hans
  • Person: Li, Bo
  • Person: Mahler, Gustav
  • Person: Wang, Wei
  • Person: Zhang, Ji
2 1966 The Cassia tree : a collection of translations & adaptations from the Chinese. David Rafael Wang ; in collaboration with William Carlos Williams [ID D29171].
Note : These poems are not translations in the sense that Arthur Waley's versions are translations. They are rather re-creations in the American idiom – a principle to which William Carlos Williams dedicated his poetic career. (D.R.W.)

Popular T'ang and Sung poems
I
Meng Hao-chuan (689-740) [Meng Haoran 689/691-740]
In spring you sleep and never know when the morn comes,
Everywhere you hear the songs of the birds,
But at night the sound of the wind mingles with the rain's,
And you wonder how many flowers have fallen.
II
Li Po (701-762) [Li Bo]
Spotting the moonlight at my bedside,
I wonder if it is frost on the ground.
After raising my head to look at the bright moon,
I lower it to think of my old country.
III
Liu, Chung-yuan, 773-819 [Liu Zhongyuan]
The birds have flown away from the mountains,
The sign of men has gone from the paths,
But under a lone sail stoops an old fisherman,
Angling in the down-pouring snow.
IV
Ho Chi-chong = Ho Chih-chang), 659-744 [He Zhizhang = Jizhen] [(Xiaoshan, Zhejiang 659-)]
Returning after I left my home in childhood,
I have kept my native accent but not the color of my hair.
Facing the smiling children who shyly approach me,
I am asked from where I come.
V
Meng Hao-chuan = Meng Hao-jan (689-740) [Meng Haoran 689/691-740]
Steering my little boat towards a misty islet,
I watch the sun descend while my sorrows grow :
In the vast night the sky hangs lower than the treetops,
But in the blue lake the moon is coming close.
VI
Wang Wei (699-759)
Alighting from my horse to drink with you,
I asked, 'Where are you going ? '
You said, 'Retreating to lie in the southern mountains'
Silent,
I watch the white clouds endless in the distance.
VII
Li Yu (The last king of the Southern T'ang dynasty, 937-978)
Silently I ascend the western pavilion.
The moon hangs like a hairpin.
In the deep autumn garden
The wu-t'ung stands alone.
Involute,
Entagled,
The feeling of departure
Clings like a wet leaf to my heart.

The maid (Ancient folk poem)
Drives sheep through ravine,
With the white goat in front.
The ole gal unmarried,
Her sigh reaches heaven.
Aihe ! Aihe !
Endless dream of the shepherd.
'Hold man's left arm,
Turn and toss with him'.
'Stroke man's whiskers,
watch changin' expression'.
The shepherd unmindful
Can she force him ?

Cho Wen-chun (Han poetess, 2nd century B.C.) [Zhuo Wenjun, ca. 179-ca. 117 B.C.]
Lament of a graying woman
White as the snow on mountaintop,
Bright as the moon piercing the clouds,
Knowing that you have a divided heart,
I come to you before you are gone.
We have lived long together in this town.
What need is there for a feast of wine ?
But a feast we must have today,
For tomorrow we'll be by the stream
And I'll lag behind you at the fork,
Watching the waters flow east or west.
Tears and still more tears.
Why should we lament ?
If only there is a constant man
Till white-hair shall we never part !

SOCIETY OF POETS
I To Li Po
Tu Fu 712-770 [Du Fu]
The floating cloud follows the sun.
The traveler has not yet returned.
For three nights I dreamt of you, my friend,
So clearly that I almost touched you.
You left me in a hurry.
Your passage is fraught with trouble :
The wind blows fiercely over lakes and rivers.
Be watchful lest you fall from your boat !
You scratched your white head when leaving the door,
And I knew the journey was against your wishes.
Silk-hatted gentlemen have swamped the capital,
While you, the poet, are lean and haggard.
If the net of heaven is not narrow,
Why should you be banished when you are old ?
Ten thousand ages will remember your warmth ;
When you are gone the world is silent and cold.
II To Meng Hao-jan
Li Po [Li Bo]
I love Meng-fu-tsu.
His name is known throughout China.
While rosy-cheeked he gave up his office ;
Now with white hair he lies in the pine clouds.
Drunk with the moon he is a hermit-saint ;
Lost in flowers he will not serve any kings.
Can I reach him who is like a high mountain ?
I am contented if I only breathe in his fragrance.
III To Wang Wei
Meng Hao-chuan [Meng Haoran 689/691-740]
Quietly, quietly, why have I been waiting ?
Emptily, emptily, I return every day alone.
I have been in search of fragrant grass
And miss the friend who can accompany me.
Who will let me roam his private park ?
Understanding ones in the world are rare.
I shall walk back home all by myself
And fasten the latch on the gate of my garden.

Meng Hao-chuan [Meng Haoran 689/691-740]
After the party
The guest, still drunk, sprawls in my bed
How am I going to get him awake ?
The chicken congee is boiling on the stove
And the new wine is heated to start our day.

Meng Hao-chuan [Meng Haoran 689/691-740]
Late spring
In April the lake water is clear
Everywhere the birds are singing
The ground just swept, the petals fall again
The grass, though stepped on, remains green
My drinking companions gather to compare fortunes
Open the keg to get over the bout of drinking
With cups held high in our hands
We hear the voices of sing-song girls
ringing.

Wang Wei (699-759)
Ce-Lia the immortal beauty
The beauty of a maiden is coveted by the world.
So how could a girl like Ce-Lia be slighted for long ?
In the mourning she was just another lass in the village,
But in the evening she has become the king's concubine.
Was she different from the rest in her days of poverty ?
Now that she is favored, all begin to realize her beauty is rare.
She can command her maids to powder and perfume her face,
And is no longer obliged to don her own clothing.
The adoration of her Emperor has brought pride to her being,
And the king's 'Yes' and 'No' vary in accordance with her caprice.
The companions who washed at the brookside along with her
Are not entitled any more to ride back home in the same carriage.
Why should we bother to sympathize with these rustic girls,
Since they'll never have Beauty to accompany them,
Even if they should master the art of coquetry ?

Wang Wei
The peerless lady
Look, there goes the young lady across the street
She looks about fifteen, doesn't she ?
Her husband is riding the piebald horse
Her maids are scraping chopped fish from a gold plate.
Her picture gallery and red pavilion stand face to face
The willow and the peach trees shadow her eaves
Look, she's coming thru the gauze curtains to get into her chaise :
Her attendants have started winnowing the fans.
Her husband got rich early in his life
A more arrogant man you never find around !
She keeps busy by teaching her maids to dance
She never regrets giving jewels away.
There goes the light by her window screen
The green smoke's rising like petals on wave
The day is done and what does she do ?
Her hair tied up, she watches the incense fade.
None but the bigwigs visit her house
Only the Chaos and the Lees get by her guards
But do you realize this pretty girl
Used to beat her clothes at the river's head ?
There goes the light by her window screen
The green smoke's rising like petals on wave
The day is done and what does she do ?
Her fair tied up, she watches the incense fade.
None but the bigwigs visit her house
Only the Chaos and the Lees get by her guards
But do you realize this pretty girl
Used to beat her clothes at the river's head ?

Li Po [Li Bo]
A letter
My love,
When you were here there was
a hall of flowers.
When you are gone there is
an empty bed.
Under the embroidered coverlet
I toss and turn.
After three years I
smell you fragrance.
Your fragrance never leaves,
But you never return.
I think of you, the yellow leaves are ended
And the white dew dampens the green moss.

Li Po [Li Bo]
Spring song
A young lass
Plucks mulberry leaves by the river
Her white hand
Reaches among the green
Her flushed cheeks
Shine under the sun
The hungry silkworms
Are waiting
Oh, young horseman
Why do you tarry. Get going.

Li Po [Li Bo]
Summer song
The Mirror Lake
(Three hundred miles),
Where lotus buds
Burst into flowers.
The slippery shore
Is jammed with admirers,
While the village beauty
Picks the blossoms.
Before the sails
Breast the rising moon,
She's shipped away
To the king's harem.

Li Po [Li Bo]
In the wineshop of Chinling
The wind scatters the fragrance of the willows over the shop
The sing-song girls pour the rice wine heated for the guests
My friends have gathered to say goodbye
Drinking cup after cup, I wonder why I should start
'Say, can you tell me about the east-flowing river –
Does it stretch as long as this feeling of departure ?'

Li Po [Li Bo]
Solo
The pavilion pierces the green sky
Below is the white jade chamber
The bright moon is ready to set
Casting its glance behind the screen window
Solitary she stands
Her thin silk skirt ruffled by autumn frost
She fingers softly the séchin
Composing the Mulberry Song.
The sound reverberates
And the wind circles the crossbeams
Outside the pedestrians are turning away
And the birds are gone to their nests.
The weight of feeling
Cannot be carried away by song and
She longs for someone
To soar with her like a mandarin drake.

Li Po [Li Bo]
The youth on horseback
The youth from the capital rides by the east of the city.
His white horse and silver saddle sail through the spring breeze.
Having trampled all the flowers where else could he go ?
Smiling, he enters the barroom of the white prostitute.

Li Po [Li Bo]
The Knight
In March the dust of Tartary has swept over the capital.
Inside the city wall the people sigh and complain.
Under the bridge the water trickles with warm blood
And bales of white bones lean against one another.
I departed east for the Kingdom of Wu.
Clouds block the four fortresses and the roads are long.
Only the crows announce the rise of the sun.
Someone opens the city gate to sweep away the flowers.
Wu-t'ungs and willows hover above the well.
Drunk, I come to the knight-errant's home.
The knights-errant of Fu Feng are rare in this world :
With arms around their friends they'll heave mountains.
The posture of the generals means little to them
And, drinking, they ignore the orders of the cabinet.
With fancy food on carved plates they entertain their guests.
With songs and dance their sing-song girls unwind a fragrant wind.
The fabulous dukes of the six kingdoms
Were known for their entertainment :
In the dining hall of each three thousand were fed.
But who knew which one would remember to repay ?
They stroke their long swords, arching their eyebrows ;
By the clear water and white rock they decline to separate.
Doffing my hat I turn to you smiling.
Drinking your wine I recite only for you.
I have not yet met my master of strategy –
The bridgeside hermit may read my heart.

Li Po [Li Bo]
Drinking together
We drink in the mountain while the flowers bloom,
A pitcher, a pitcher, and one more pitcher.
As my head spins you get up.
So be back any time with your guitar.

Li Po [Li Bo]
The march
The bay horse is fitted with a white jade saddle.
The moon shivers over the battlefield.
The sound of iron drums still shakes the city walls
And in the case the gold sword oozes blood.

Li Po [Li Bo]
Long Banister Lane
When my hair was first trimmed across my forehead,
I played in front of my door, picking flowers.
You came riding a bamboo stilt for a horse,
Circling around my yard, playing with green plums.
Living as neighbors at Long Banister Lane,
We had an affection for each other that none were suspicious of.
At fourteen I became your wife,
With lingering shyness, I never laughed.
Lowering my head towards a dark wall,
I never turned, though called a thousand times.
At fifteen I began to show my happiness,
I desired to have my dust mingled with yours.
With a devotion ever unchanging.
Why should I look out when I had you ?
At sixteen you left home
For a faraway land of steep pathways and eddies,
Which in May were impossible to traverse,
And where the monkey whined sorrowfully towards the sky.
The footprints you made when you left the door
Have been covered by green moss,
New moss too deep to be swept away.
The autumn wind came early and the leaves started falling.
The butterflies, yellow with age in August,
Fluttered in pairs towards the western garden.
Looking at the scene, I felt a pang in my heart,
And I sat lamenting my fading youth.
Every day and night I wait for your return,
Expecting to receive your letter in advance,
So that I will some traveling to greet you
As far as Windy Sand.

Adaptation of Li Po [Li Bo]
The visitor
See that horseman from the distant land,
Greeneyed and wearing a tigerskin hat,
Smiling, he lifts two arrows from his case,
And ten thousand people shy away.
He bends his bow like a circling moon
And from the clouds white geese spin down in pairs.
Shaking his whip high in the air,
He starts out hunting with his pack.
Once out of his dooryard what does he care ?
What matters if he dies pro patria ?
Prouder he is than five filtans
And has the wolf's love for seeking out a herd.
He drives the cattle further north
And with a tiger's appetite tastes the freshly killed.
But he camps at the Swallow Mountain,
Far from the arctic snow.
From his horse a woman smiles at him,
Her face a vermilion vessel of jade.
As his flying darts haunt birds and beasts,
Flowers and the moon land drunk in his saddle.
The light of the alien star flashes and spreads
While war gathers head like the swarming of wasps.
From the edge of his white sword blood drips and drips.
It covers the floating sand.
Are there any more reckless generals left ? –
The soldiers are too tired to complain.

Tu Fu [Du Fu]
Profile of a lady
A pretty, pretty girl
Lives in the empty mountain
Came from a celebrated family
Now alone with her fagots.
In the civil war
All her brothers were killed.
Why talk of pedigree,
When she couldn'd collect their bones ?
World feeling rises against the decline,
Then follows the rotating candle.
Husband has a new interest :
A beauty subtle as jade.
The acacia knows its hour
The mandarin duck never lies alone.
Husband listens to the laughter of new girl
Deaf to the tears of the old.
Spring in the mountains is clear,
Mud underfoot.
She sends the maid to sell jewels
Pick wisteria to mend the roof
Wears no fresh flower
Bears cypress boughs in her hands.
Leans cold against the bamboo
Her green sleeves flutter.

Tu Fu [Du Fu]
Visit
The life we could seldom meet
Separate as the stars.
What a special occasion tonight
That we gather und the candle-lamp !
How long can youth last ?
Our hair is peppered with white.
Half of our friends are ghosts
It's so good to see you alive.
How strange after twenty years
To revisit your house !
When I left you were single
Your children are grown up now.
They treat me with great respect,
Ask where I came from.
Before I can answer
You send your son for the wine.
In the rain you cut scallions
And start the oven to cook rice.
'It's hard to get together
Let's finish up these ten goblets.'
After ten goblets we are still sober
The feeling of reunion is long.
Tomorrow I have to cross the mountain
Back to the mist of the world.

Wang Ch'ang-ling (circa 727) [Wang Changling (698–756)]
Chant of the frontiersman
I
The cicadas are singing in the mulberry forest :
It is August at the fortress.
We pass the frontiers to enter more frontiers.
Everywhere the rushes are yellow.
The sodbusters from the provinces
Have disappeared with the dust they kicked up.
Why should we bother to be knights-errant ?
Let us discuss the merits of bayards.
II
I lead the horse to drink in the autumn river.
The river is icy and the wind cuts like knives.
In the desert the sun has not yet gone down ;
In the shade I see my distant home.
When the war first spread to the Great Wall,
We were filled with patriotic fervor.
The yellow sand has covered the past glories ;
The bleached bones are scattered over the nettles.

Wang Chen (circa 775) [Wang Zhen]
The newlywed's cuisine
The thir night after wedding
I get near the stove.
Rolling up my sleeves
I make a fancy broth.
Not knowing the taste
Of my mother-in-law,
I try it first upon her
Youngest girl.

Li Yu
Bella donna Iu
Spring flowers, autumn moon – when will you end ?
How much of the past do you recall ?
At the pavilion last night the cast wind sobbed.
I can hardly turn my head homeward
In this moonlight.
The carved pillars and the jade steps are still here.
But the color of your checks is gone.
When asked : 'How much sorrow do you still have ?'
'Just like the flood of spring water
Rushing eastward.'

Li Ts'un-hsu (Emporor Chuang of the later T'ang Dynasty, 10th century. [Zhuang Zong]
In dream's wake
We dine in a glade concealed in peach petals.
We dance like linnets and sing like phoenixes.
Then we part.
Like a dream,
Like a dream,
A mist envelops the pale moon and fallen blossoms.

Kuo Mo-jo (1893-) [Guo Moruo]
From Phoenix undying
Ah !
Our floating and inconstant life
Is like a delirious dream in a dark night.
Before us is sleep,
Behind us is sleep ;
It comes like the fluttering wind,
It comes like the trailing smoke ;
Enters like wind,
Departs like smoke.
Behind us : sleep,
Before us : sleep.
In the midst of our sleep we appear
Like the momentary wind and smoke.

Mao Tse-tung (1893-) [Mao Zedong]
Spring in the now-drenched garden
The northern countryside of China
Is bound by miles and miles of ice.
Snow flies over the border,
And outside of the Great Wall
Waste land stretches as though endless.
The great Hwang Ho rushes in torrents
Up and down the skyline.
The mountains thrash like silvery snakes,
Their contours soar like waxen elephants
Vying with the gods in height.
On a fine day,
The landscape unveils like a maiden
Dressing up in her boudoir.
Such enchanting mountains and rivers
Have led countless heroes to rival in homage.
Pity that the founders of Ch'in and Han
Were unversed in the classics ;
Pity that the great kings of T'ang and Sung
Were deficient in poetry ;
Pity that the magnificent, the pride of heaven,
Genghis Khan
Could only shoot with bows and arrows.
All these were of the past !
For the greatest man yet – only
My dynasty, my era will show.

Ping Hsin (1902-) [Bing Xin]
The old man and the child
The old man to the child :
'Weep,
Sigh,
How dreary the world is !'
The child, laughing :
'Excuse me,
mister !
I can't imagine what I Haven't experiences.'
The child to the old man :
'Smile,
Jump,
How interesting the world is !'
The old man, sighing :
'Forgive me,
Child !
I can't bear recalling what I have experienced.'

Tsong Kuh-chia = Tsang Ko-chia (1910-) [Zang Kejia]
Three generations
The child
Is bathing in the mud.
The father
Is seating in the mud.
The grandfather
Is buried in the mud.

D.R.W. [David Rafael Wang]
Cool cat
For Gary Snyder
The rain has soaked the cabin
The wind has shaken the mast
My mistress's red petticoat is wet
And knitted are the eyebrows of my lovely wife
I tie the boat to the nearest tree
And observe the flowering billows
The bamboo blinds are left sagging
The broken teacups litter the deck
On my way back I feel a sudden calmness :
Autumn has invaded the summer
I dry my sleeves in a Yoga posture
And leave the girls to fret and chatter.
  • Document: The Cassia tree : a collection of translations & adaptations from the Chinese. David Rafael Wang ; in collaboration with William Carlos Williams. In : New Directions in prose and poetry ; 19 ; (1966). (WillW3, Publication)
  • Person: Du, Fu
  • Person: Guo, Moruo
  • Person: He, Zhizhang
  • Person: Li, Bo
  • Person: Li, Yu (1)
  • Person: Liu, Yu
  • Person: Liu, Zhongyuan
  • Person: Mao, Zedong
  • Person: Wang, Changling
  • Person: Wang, David Rafael
  • Person: Wang, Wei
  • Person: Wang, Zhen (3)
  • Person: Williams, William Carlos
  • Person: Zang, Kejia
  • Person: Zhuang, Zong
  • Person: Zhuo, Wenjun
3 1993 Snyder, Gary. Sixteen T'ang poems : [translations]. [ID D29196].
Note dat. 14.1.93
In the early fifties I managed to get myself accepted into the Department of Oriental Languages at UC Berkeley as a graduate student. I took seminars in the reading of T'ang and Sung poems with Professor Ch'en Shih-hsiang, a remarkable scholar, calligrapher, poet, and critic who had a profound appreciation for good poetry and of any provenance. Ch'en Hsien-sheng introduced me to the Han-shan poems, and I published those translations back in the sixties. The poems translated here also got their start in those seminars, but I never considered them quite finished. From Berkeley I went to Japan and for the subsequent decade was working almost exclusively with Ch'an texts. Another twenty years went into developing a farmstead in the Sierra Nevada and working for the ecological movement. In the last few years I have had a chance to return to my readings in Chinese poetry and bring a few of the poems I started back then to completion. The little collection is dedicated to the memory of Ch'en Shih-hsiang.

Two poems by Meng Hao-jan
Meng, Hao-jan [Meng Haoran]. Spring dawn. Transl. by Gary Snyder. In : The Peabody review ; winter (1989-1990).
Spring sleep, not yet awake to dawn,
I am full of birdsongs.
Throughout the night the sounds of wind and rain
Who knows what flowers fell.

Meng, Hao-jan [Meng Haoran]. Mooring on Chien-te river. Transl. by Gary Snyder. In : The Peabody review ; winter (1989-1990).
The boat rocks at anchor by the misty island
Sunset, my loneliness comes again.
In these vast wilds the sky arches down to the trees.
In the clear river water, the moon draws near.

Five poems by Wang Wei
Wang, Wei. Deer camp. Transl. by Gary Snyder. In : Journal for the protection of all beings ; no 4 (Fall 1978).
Empty mountains :
no one to be seen.
Yet – hear –
human sounds and echoes.
Returning sunlight
enters the dark woods ;
Again shining
on green moss, above.
Sekundärliteratur : Eliot Weinberger : Surely one of the best translations, partially because of Snyder's lifelong forest experience. Like Rexroth, he can see the scene. Every word of Wang has been translated, and nothing added, yet the translation exists as an American poem.
Changing the passive is heard to the imperative hear is particularly beautiful, and not incorrect: it creates an exact moment, which is now. Giving us both meanings, sounds and echoes, for the last word of line 2 is, like most sensible ideas, revolutionary. Translators always assume that only one reading of a foreign word or phrase may be presented, despite the fact that perfect correspondence is rare.
The poem ends strangely. Snyder takes the last word, which everyone else has read as on, and translates it with its alternative meaning, above, isolating it from the phrase with a comma. What's going on? Moss presumably is only above if one is a rock or bug. Or are we meant to look up, after seeing the moss, back toward the sun: the vertical metaphor of enlightenment?
In answer to my query, Snyder wrote: "The reason for .. moss, above'... is that the sun is entering (in its sunset sloping, hence 'again'—a final shaft) the woods, and illuminating some moss up in the trees. (NOT ON ROCKS.) This is how my teacher Ch'en Shih-hsiang saw it, and my wife (Japanese) too, the first time she looked at the poem."
The point is that translation is more than a leap from dictionary to dictionary; it is a reimagining of the poem. As such, every reading of every poem, regardless of language, is an act of translation: translation into the reader's intellectual and emotional life. As no individual reader remains the same, each reading becomes a different—not merely another—reading. The same poem cannot be read twice.
Snyder's explanation is only one moment, the latest, when the poem suddenly transforms before our eyes. Wang's 20 characters remain the same, but the poem continues in a state of restless change.

Wang, Wei. Bamboo Lane House. Transl. by Gary Snyder.
Sitting alone, hid in bamboo
Plucking the lute and gravely whistling.
People wouldn't know that deep woods
Can be this bright in the moon.
Wang, Wei. Saying farewell. Transl. by Gary Snyder.
Me in the mountains and now you've left.
Sunset, I close the peelpole door.
Next spring when grass is green,
Will you return once more ?

Wang, Wei. Thinking of us. Transl. by Gary Snyder.
Read beans grow in the south
In spring they put out shoots.
Gather a lapful for me –
And doing it, think of us.

Wang, Wei. Poem. Transl. by Gary Snyder.
You who come from my village
Ought to know its affairs
The day you passed the silk window
Had the chill plum bloomed ?
Three poems for women in the Service of the Palace

Tu, Mu [Du, Mu]. Autumn evening. Transl. by Gary Snyder.
A silver candle in the autumn gloom
by a lone painted screen
Her small light gauze fan
shivers the fireflies
On the stairs of heaven, night's color
cool as water :
She sits watching the Herd-boy,
the weaving-girl, stars.

Yuan, Chen [Yuan Zhen]. The Summer Palace. Transl. by Gary Snyder.
Silence settles on the old Summer Palace
Palace flowers still quiet red.
White-haired concubines
Idly sit and gossip of the days of Hsüan Tsung.

Po, Chü-i [Bo Juyi]. Palace song. Transl. by Gary Snyder.
Tears soak her thin shawl
dreams won't come.
In the dark night, from the front palace,
girls rehearsing songs.
Still fresh and young,
already put down,
She leans across the brazier
to wait the coming dawn.

Tu, Fu [Du Fu]. Spring view. Transl. by Gary Snyder.
The nation is ruined, but mountains and rivers remain.
This spring the city is deep in weeds and brush.
Touched by the times even flowers weep tears,
Fearing leaving the birds tangled hearts.
Watch-tower fires have been burning for three months
To get a note from home would cost ten thousand gold.
Scratching my white hair thinner
Seething hopes all in a trembling hairpin.
(Events of the An Lushan rebellion)

Liu, Ch'ang-ch'ing [Liu, Changqing]. Parting from Ling Ch'e. Transl. by Gary Snyder.
Green, green
bamboo-grove temple
Dark, dark,
the bell-sounding evening.
His rainhat catches
the slanting sunlight,
Alone returning
From the distant blue peaks.

Wang Chih-huan [Wang Zhihuan]. Climbing Crane Tower. Transl. by Gary Snyder.
The Whie sun has gone over the mountains
The yellow river is flowing to the sea.
If you wish to see a thousand li
Climb one story higher in the tower.

Liu, Tsung-yüan [Liu Zongyuan]. River snow. Transl. by Gary Snyder.
These thousand peaks cut off the flight of birds
On all the trails, human tracks are gone.
A single boat—coat—hat—an old man!
Alone fishing chill river snow.

Wang, Ch'ang-ling [Wang Changling]. Parting with Hsin Chien at Hibiscus tavern. Transl. by Gary Snyder
Cold rain on the river
we enter Wu by night
At dawn I leave
for Ch'u-shan, alone.
If friends in Lo-yang
ask after me, I've
"A heart like ice
in a jade vase."

Two poems written at Maple Bridge near Su-chou
Chang, Chi [Zhang Ji ]. Maple bridge night mooring. Transl. by Gary Snyder. In : Cloudline : no 1 (1985/86).
Moon set, a crow caws,
frost fills the sky
River, maple, fishing-fires
cross my troubled sleep.
Beyond the walls of Su-chou
from Cold Mountain temple
The midnight bell sounds
reach my boat.

Snyder, Gary. At Maple Bridge (1984)
Men are mixing gravel and cement
At Maple bridge,
Down an alley by a tea-stall
From Cold Mountain temple ;
Where Chang Chi heard the bell.
The stone step moorage
Empty, lapping water,
And the bell sound has travelled
Far across the sea.
  • Document: Snyder, Gary. The Gary Snyder reader : prose, poetry, and translations, 1952-1998. (Washington, D.C. : Counterpoint, 1999). (Sny6, Publication)
  • Person: Du, Fu
  • Person: Du, Mu
  • Person: Liu, Changqing
  • Person: Liu, Zongyuan
  • Person: Snyder, Gary
  • Person: Wang, Changling
  • Person: Wang, Wei
  • Person: Wang, Zhihuan
  • Person: Zhang, Ji
  • Person: Zhang, Ji (2)

Bibliography (3)

# Year Bibliographical Data Type / Abbreviation Linked Data
1 1984 Zingend roei ik huiswaarts op de maan : gedichten van Meng Haoran, Wang Wei, Li Taibai, Du Fu en Bai Juyi. Uit het chinees vertaald door W[ilt] L. Idema. (Amsterdam : De Arbeiderspers, 1984). Publication / Ide15
2 1987 Paj, Siang-san ; Wang Wej ; Meng, Chao-zan. [Wang, Wei ; Bai, Juyi ; Meng, Haoran]. Trojzvuk : vybor z dila tri cin. basniku z doby dynastie Tchang. [Übers. von] Marta Rysava. (Praha : Melantrich, 1987). Publication / Rys4
3 2004 Meng, Hao-jan [Meng, Haoran]. The mountain poems of Meng Hao-jan. Transl. by David Hinton. (New York, N.Y. : Archipelago Books, 2004). Publication / Hint12

Secondary Literature (4)

# Year Bibliographical Data Type / Abbreviation Linked Data
1 1952 Frankel, Hans H. Biographies of Meng Hao-jan. (Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, 1953). (Chinese dynastic histories translations ; no 1). [Meng Haoran]. Publication / FrH2
2 1977 Bryant, Daniel Joseph. The high T'ang poet Meng Hao-jan : studies in biography and textual history. (Vancouver : University of British Columbia, 1977). Diss. Univ. of British Columbia, 1977. [Meng Haoran]. Publication / BryD3
3 1981 Kroll, Paul W. Meng Hao-jan. (Boston : Twayne, 1981). (Twayne's world authors series ; TWAS 628). [Meng Haoran]. Publication / Kro2
4 1982 A concordance to the poems of Meng Hao-jan. Compiled by Paul W. Kroll and Joyce Wong Kroll. (San Franciso : Chinese Materials Center, 1982). (Research aids series ; no 5). [Meng Haoran]. Publication / Kro3