Elegance

This random online image by Johannes Plenio fits the poem rather well.

Fording the River at Lizhou, into the Deep South
Wen Tingyun

The gently rippling emptiness
addresses brilliant slanting rays
of sun, as iridescent haze
from hills, received by measureless

and undulating islands, drops.
At a whinny from the waves, we cast
a glance to where the scull and mast
recede; beside the willow copse,

relaxed, we pass the time until
the boat returns. A dozen stands
of river reeds and shifting sands
conceal flocks of gulls which spill

into the air; above the land,
ten thousand acres worth, that lies
along the banks, one egret flies
alone. But can you understand

what drives a man to board his boat
and seek Fan Li? Who left behind
the tangled skein of power to find
a maze of lakes and mists that float

where only he might share
the carefree life of the birds of the air. 


温庭筠  利州南渡
澹然空水对斜晖，曲岛苍茫接翠微。
波上马嘶看棹去，柳边人歇待船归。
数丛沙草群鸥散，万顷江田一鹭飞。
谁解乘舟寻范蠡，五湖烟水独忘机。

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The fireworks in this poem are in the first three couplets, each one exquisitely balanced, character for character, without ever becoming trite or obvious. The goal in English was to reproduce it by using a tight formal meter with perfect rhymes, but without end-stopping the lines, to preserve the sense of dynamism in the original. Funnily enough, it all came together rather easily.

Fan Li was a statesman from the Warring States period. After he had faithfully and successfully served his king for many years, he set off on a boat into the wilderness, to live out a real retirement. He achieved the dream that so few manage.

Birds of the air: There is a Chinese saying that gulls and egrets have no ulterior motives. That saying holds the poem together, as Wen suggests that Fan Li escaped the world of intrigue and politics for a life of rustic simplicity. The Biblical parable of the birds of the air (and the lilies of the field) is not exactly the same, but I think comes close enough to be a useful reference here.

Here is the reading: