酷我-北美枫

[hahaview]

My Interpretation of Wang Wei’s Poem: The Twentieth Way of Looking at Wang Wei’s Poem co-written by ericcoliu

(A reply to ericcoliu’s Thematic Review of Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei: How a Chinese Poem is Translated Written by Eliot Weinberger and Octavio Paz)


Chinese Text of Poem, 鹿柴 by 王維


空山不見人， 但聞人語響。
返景入深林， 復照青苔上。


English Translation of Poem, Deer Fence by Hahaview and Ericcoliu


Empty mountains, no one in sight,
only human echoes are heard;
reflected sunlight enters the deep forest,
and shines upon the green moss again.



Poem Review

Wang Wei (699-761) was one of the major poets of the Tang Dynasty, the period of greatest poetic florescence in China, and a man of outstanding talents -- courtier, administrator, poet, calligrapher, musician and painter. Translations of his poetry outnumber those of any other Chinese poet. According to Chinese poetry scholar Pauline Yu, there are several possible reasons for the popularity of his poetry among the Western readers: “the quietude of many of his nature poems, appealing to subcultures of the late sixties in the West; his reliance on concrete imagery, which translates rather well; the infrequency of obscure allusions in much of his work; his comparatively straightforward diction and syntax; and the quite manageable size of his corpus – approximately 400 poems.”

However, there have been few extensive critical studies of his poetry. On the surface, we can find that his work possesses a deceptive simplicity in its language, a tranquil intimacy with nature, and a precise description of imagery, all of which seem to leave little room for the reader to interpret. However, upon a closer reading of his poetry, we discover that his work “reveals disturbingly elusive philosophical underpinnings, grounded in Buddhist metaphysics, and the difficulty of grappling with these concepts.” How to relate these Buddhism-influenced and philosophically inclined concepts to his poetry may have discouraged critical analysis. My review of his poem entitled Deer Fence is my personal response to this intellectually and aesthetically challenging task, an attempt to fill the critical gap and also to provide one more way, the twentieth way in terms of Eliot Weinberger and Octavio Paz, of looking at Wang Wei’s poem.

Deer Fence is by far probably the most famous and translated of the most well-known group of twenty poems entitled Wang River Collection written at the time when Wang Wei and his friend, Pei Di were at leisure and took walks along Wang River. The title of the poem is the name of one of the places along Wang River they had visited, and it was written from various sights near the river.

In the first two lines, Wang doesn’t specify the subject. This is characteristic of Chinese poetry, and it raises the paradoxically confusing question – how can no one is seen and yet human echoes are heard -- for Western readers because of how it is translated into English. The phrase “empty mountain,” a key phrase in his work, has even been employed in some of his poems where there are human characters, emphasizing the Buddhist concept of a calm solitude amid nature. Viewed from this perspective, the first couplet possesses no contradiction between two sensory messages, visual and auditory, and it sets the tranquil tone for the poem.

In the last two lines, Wang moves from the spacious mountain scene to focus on a small mossy glade upon which the returning sunlight shines. He gets a glimpse of the last rays of sunlight, entering the deep forest and casting a final glow. According to Octavio Pas, for Wang Wei, the light of the setting sun has a very precise meaning. It is an allusion to the Amida Buddha: at the end of the afternoon, the adept meditates and, like the moss in the forest, receives illumination.” The allusion aside, the phrases “reflected sunlight” and “human echoes,” stressing the immateriality of what is being heard and a reflection of what is already intangible, also characterize his poetic sentiments: reliance on ambiguity and avoidance of distinctiveness.

Deer Fence is a poem impregnated with gem-like characteristics: concrete objects on the hand and murmuring voices and reflected light on the other; the physical world interacting with the metaphysical thoughts. It is written in a deceptively simple language with a tranquil tone, giving the reader the concrete imagery grounded on Buddhist metaphysics, and focusing on the objectivity, passivity and impersonality of man-nature encounters.
_________________
I came, I saw, and I conquered

[[hahaview]]

My Interpretation of Wang Wei’s Poem: The Twentieth Way of Looking at Wang Wei’s Poem co-written by ericcoliu

(A reply to ericcoliu’s Thematic Review of Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei: How a Chinese Poem is Translated Written by Eliot Weinberger and Octavio Paz)


Chinese Text of Poem, 鹿柴 by 王維


空山不見人， 但聞人語響。
返景入深林， 復照青苔上。


English Translation of Poem, Deer Fence by Hahaview and Ericcoliu


Empty mountains, no one in sight,
only human echoes are heard;
reflected sunlight enters the deep forest,
and shines upon the green moss again.



Poem Review

Wang Wei (699-761) was one of the major poets of the Tang Dynasty, the period of greatest poetic florescence in China, and a man of outstanding talents -- courtier, administrator, poet, calligrapher, musician and painter. Translations of his poetry outnumber those of any other Chinese poet. According to Chinese poetry scholar Pauline Yu, there are several possible reasons for the popularity of his poetry among the Western readers: “the quietude of many of his nature poems, appealing to subcultures of the late sixties in the West; his reliance on concrete imagery, which translates rather well; the infrequency of obscure allusions in much of his work; his comparatively straightforward diction and syntax; and the quite manageable size of his corpus – approximately 400 poems.”

However, there have been few extensive critical studies of his poetry. On the surface, we can find that his work possesses a deceptive simplicity in its language, a tranquil intimacy with nature, and a precise description of imagery, all of which seem to leave little room for the reader to interpret. However, upon a closer reading of his poetry, we discover that his work “reveals disturbingly elusive philosophical underpinnings, grounded in Buddhist metaphysics, and the difficulty of grappling with these concepts.” How to relate these Buddhism-influenced and philosophically inclined concepts to his poetry may have discouraged critical analysis. My review of his poem entitled Deer Fence is my personal response to this intellectually and aesthetically challenging task, an attempt to fill the critical gap and also to provide one more way, the twentieth way in terms of Eliot Weinberger and Octavio Paz, of looking at Wang Wei’s poem.

Deer Fence is by far probably the most famous and translated of the most well-known group of twenty poems entitled Wang River Collection written at the time when Wang Wei and his friend, Pei Di were at leisure and took walks along Wang River. The title of the poem is the name of one of the places along Wang River they had visited, and it was written from various sights near the river.

In the first two lines, Wang doesn’t specify the subject. This is characteristic of Chinese poetry, and it raises the paradoxically confusing question – how can no one is seen and yet human echoes are heard -- for Western readers because of how it is translated into English. The phrase “empty mountain,” a key phrase in his work, has even been employed in some of his poems where there are human characters, emphasizing the Buddhist concept of a calm solitude amid nature. Viewed from this perspective, the first couplet possesses no contradiction between two sensory messages, visual and auditory, and it sets the tranquil tone for the poem.

In the last two lines, Wang moves from the spacious mountain scene to focus on a small mossy glade upon which the returning sunlight shines. He gets a glimpse of the last rays of sunlight, entering the deep forest and casting a final glow. According to Octavio Pas, for Wang Wei, the light of the setting sun has a very precise meaning. It is an allusion to the Amida Buddha: at the end of the afternoon, the adept meditates and, like the moss in the forest, receives illumination.” The allusion aside, the phrases “reflected sunlight” and “human echoes,” stressing the immateriality of what is being heard and a reflection of what is already intangible, also characterize his poetic sentiments: reliance on ambiguity and avoidance of distinctiveness.

Deer Fence is a poem impregnated with gem-like characteristics: concrete objects on the hand and murmuring voices and reflected light on the other; the physical world interacting with the metaphysical thoughts. It is written in a deceptively simple language with a tranquil tone, giving the reader the concrete imagery grounded on Buddhist metaphysics, and focusing on the objectivity, passivity and impersonality of man-nature encounters.
_________________
I came, I saw, and I conquered

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[christine]

[[christine]]

[hahaview]

[[hahaview]]

[Champagne]

[[Champagne]]

[hahaview]

[[hahaview]]

[东西]

[[东西]]

[hahaview]

Yes, that's why Paz chose the phrase "Western light".
_________________
I came, I saw, and I conquered

[[hahaview]]

Yes, that's why Paz chose the phrase "Western light".
_________________
I came, I saw, and I conquered