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Zhōng Nán Bié YèMy Retreat at Zhongnan 终南别业
Wang Wei: "walk to where the water ends, sit and watch the clouds rise".
Original Chinese text with pinyin
行到水穷处
xíng dào shuǐ qióng chù
坐看云起时
zuò kàn yún qǐ shí
偶然値林叟
ǒu rán zhí lín sǒu
谈笑无还期
tán xiào wú hái qī
Simplified characters; traditional title: 終南別業. This is a long poem; only the best-known lines are shown, and “……” marks omitted passages.
Note on the text: This page presents a well-known excerpt; the full poem is longer in the traditional corpus.
English translation
I walk to where the water ends,
and sit and watch the clouds rise.
By chance I meet an old man of the woods;
we talk and laugh and forget to go home.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Wang Wei: "walk to where the water ends, sit and watch the clouds rise". The scene stays with you.
Background
Wang Wei: "walk to where the water ends, sit and watch the clouds rise".
Key words
- 行到 xíng dào
- walking until; arriving at
- 水穷 shuǐ qióng
- where the water ends; the stream runs out
- 坐看 zuò kàn
- sitting and watching
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
- Deer Park鹿柴
- 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