Mazy days

Poems rhyme, and the world does, too

Zha Shibiao, Old Man Floating on a River. Met Museum. Notice how the trees in the foreground match the shape of the mountains in the background.

Six Short Poems (3)
Du Fu

A well with
A watercourse
criss-crossing
breaking
leaves
the roots
of bamboo
of palms, too

A little raft
A little path
twisting
lightly
twisting
leading to
its rope
the little town

杜甫  绝句六首·其三
凿井交棕叶，开渠断竹根。
扁舟轻袅缆，小径曲通村。

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OK, having written my title, I find the world’s dictionary websites think that “mazy” means “having the qualities of a maze or labyrinth.” Please be assured that the dictionaries are wrong, and mazy days means lazy, happy, warm days of summer. British people, back me up on this!

Here Du Fu is simply spotting the visual and physical consonances in the world that match the way he writes his poems. The leaves criss-cross, the roots do not; the mooring rope bends, the path meanders.