The beauty of the evening

The Wang River collection (6)

Magnolia Grove 

The hills soak up the autumn day's last glimmers, 
And all the birds are chasing home their mates. 
How bright and fresh the green at this time shimmers! 
The mountains' evening vapour dissipates. 

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

In the dying sunset light, the birdcalls ruffle the stream water. Following the stream, the road takes us deeper; my love of seclusion will never end.

Wang’s poem is a lovely evocation of the in-between state of evening, full of things that are only half there. There is light, but it’s been soaked up; there are pairs of birds, but we only see the second one; the green is shimmering in and out of existence; and the mist is mentioned only just in time to disappear.

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木兰柴

秋山敛余照，飞鸟逐前侣。

彩翠时分明，夕岚无所处。