A pavilion on a higher plane

The Wang River collection (3)

Pavilion of Rich-grained Apricot Wood 

With beams from apricot's transcendent lumber, 
You're thatched with lemongrass in scented sheaves. 
I wonder: do the clouds that swirl just under 
Bestow the rain our mortal world receives? 

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Pei Di's poem at the same site (prose translation):

Remote pavilion of rich-grained apricot, we have climbed up here many days in a row. Hills to the south and lake to the north, we look forward, then look back.

Wang’s pavilion hovers on the boundary between real and mythical. Apricot and lemongrass are possible materials for a mountain pavilion; they also have literary allusions and myths associated with them. Even if the pavilion in the Wang River estate wasn’t really made of these elevated materials, it seems churlish to blame Wang Wei for a little inventiveness.

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文杏馆

文杏裁为梁，香茅结为宇。

不知栋里云，去作人间雨。