By Western Stream at Chuzhou

滁州西涧

韦应物

独 怜 幽 草 涧 边 生，

上 有 黄 鹂 深 树 鸣。
春 潮 带 雨 晚 来 急，
野 渡 无 人 舟 自 横。

By the River to the West of Chuzhou

Wei Yingwu

Translated by Andrew W.F. Wong

How I love the riverside where slender grasses grow

And from up on trees so leafy, songs of the orioles flow.

Spring flood and a day's rain, by dusk the river runs swift,

The country ferry deserted, the boat, by itself, lies low.

By Western Stream at Chuzhou

Wei Yingwu

Translated by Wang Dalian

I like but grasses growing by ravine;

Above them orioles sing amid trees green

With rains night in haste spring tide does rise;

At wild ford, unmanned boat alone thwart lies

  Hello people!

  I know we all come into the final, what a serious word. But I have to update my blog as a daily assignment; meanwhile it will be a best tool to communicate with you.  

  Today I bring a fresh poem even thought this one omits a bit sorrow atmosphere.

  I would like to call his poem as By Western Stream at ChuZhuo, because the last character of title in this poem is “涧”, I think it will be more suitable that translate it into stream.  

  With the respect of the author, Wei Yingwu, he is a quite a famed poet in Tang Dynasty. Maybe you have already noticed that nearly all of these poets I`ve introduced were lived in Tang Dynasty, actually Tang is the top period of Chinese history, meanwhile literature got a sufficient development in Tang Dynasty or even probably the poems approach the peak in the whole history.

  Let`s back to Wei Yingwu, he was appointed as an administrative officer in Chuzhuo, an important city in south China in that era. He wrote this poem when he went to the suburb of Chuzhuo for expressing himself. Wei Yingwu always be considered as the symbol of “Landscape poetry school”, and this poem is also be regarded as the masterwork of Wei Yingwu, hence we can get that it`s a pretty classical poem, at the same time it must describe the landscape wonderfully.

  Now turn to the poem itself:

  I love the green grass grows alone the stream lonely. Listening, there are some orioles singing on the trees.

  Quite simple sentences, just show you a picture around the stream. Grass, orioles, trees constitutes the flawless landscape. But the most splendid item is, in my eyes, the author using the adjective “Lonely” in the first line, while he did not point out that I`m lonely or the grass is lonely. For me, I`ll suppose that he felt much lonely in that situation, consequently he thought the grass is the same lone as him.

  Night, spring flood comes hurriedly with heavy rains. Canoe, lying thwart on the deserted ferry without anyone.

  Suddenly, rains are coming followed by the winds fallen in the discarded ferry. The atmosphere becomes increasingly loneliness, however then, Wei Yingwu draws a more heartbroken picture to us. “A canoe thwart lies on that ferry.” I think you even can feel the lonely air from this poem.

  Pictures in the poem. The best realm for a poet. Wei Yingwu did it.