Lù ZhàiDeer Park 鹿柴
Wang Wei's quiet forest, made of sound and light.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
空山不见人
kōng shān bù jiàn rén
但闻人语响
dàn wén rén yǔ xiǎng
返景入深林
fǎn yǐng rù shēn lín
复照青苔上
fù zhào qīng tái shàng
Simplified characters; traditional title: 鹿柴.
English translation
There seems to be no one on the empty mountain…
And yet I think I hear a voice,
Where sunlight, entering a grove,
Shines back to me from the green moss.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The poem uses sound to reveal silence: a far-off voice makes the emptiness of the mountain felt. Then a single ray of evening light slips through the trees and touches the moss. The scene is ordinary, but Wang Wei, a devout Buddhist, presents it as a moment of insight — emptiness that is full, a passing gleam that reveals everything.
Background
One of Wang Wei's twenty Wangchuan quatrains. Lùzhài (鹿柴, "Deer Enclosure") was a spot on his estate. Note: 柴 is read zhài here, not chái.
Key words
- 空山 kōng shān
- an empty, quiet mountain
- 返景 fǎn yǐng
- returning light, evening sunlight
- 青苔 qīng tái
- green moss
About the poet: Wang Wei
Wang Wei was a poet, painter, musician and court official. A devout Buddhist, he wrote spare, luminous landscape verse; later critics said there is "a painting in his poems and a poem in his paintings." He is sometimes called the "Buddha of Poetry."
Lifetime: c. 699–761. Other famous works: Miscellaneous Poem (You Have Come from Home) (杂诗); Farewell (Dismounting to Drink) (送别); Autumn Evening in the Mountains (山居秋暝); Longing (相思); Deer Park (鹿柴); Bamboo Grove Retreat (竹里馆); Farewell to Yuan the Second on His Mission to Anxi (送元二使安西); Thinking of My Brothers on the Double Ninth (九月九日忆山东兄弟); Birdsong in the Ravine (鸟鸣涧); Joys of the Countryside (田园乐); Floating on the Han River (汉江临泛); In the Mountains (山中); Farewell in the Mountains (山中送别); Long Rain at Wangchuan (积雨辋川庄作); Magnolia Bank (辛夷坞); Seeing Off Shen Zifu (送沈子福之江东); Reply to Vice-Prefect Zhang (酬张少府); A Quiet Matter (书事); Song of Youth (少年行); My Retreat at Zhongnan (终南别业); Seeing Off Prefect Li of Zizhou (送梓州李使君).
More by Wang Wei
- Farewell to Yuan Er on His Mission to Anxi送元二使安西
- Bamboo Grove Retreat竹里馆
- Thinking of My Brothers on the Double Ninth九月九日忆山东兄弟
- Farewell (Dismounting to Drink)送别
- Autumn Evening in the Mountains山居秋暝
- Longing相思
- Miscellaneous Poem (You Have Come from Home)杂诗
- Birdsong in the Ravine鸟鸣涧