Wang River Collection no. 20
What a lush poem! In just four lines!
I love both poems. And I dig that in the second poem -- there's an enticing yet playful and mischievous invitation to adventure among the thorns.
This is one of the few pairs where Pei Di and Wang Wei went in quite different directions. Pei's poem is, as you say, all bucolic charm and suggestive fecundity, while Wei goes full-on Wicker Man rural cult. Wei sees more supernatural companions in the landscape in several other of the poems (https://tangpoetry.substack.com/p/natures-beauty-is-a-rich-delicacy, https://tangpoetry.substack.com/p/visitors-for-whom-the-flowers-bloom, https://tangpoetry.substack.com/p/wang-wei-finds-the-key-to-immortality), but this is the only pair where I think the tone really differs substantially. Perhaps it was the end of their trip and they were getting fed up of each other!
What a lush poem! In just four lines!
I love both poems. And I dig that in the second poem -- there's an enticing yet playful and mischievous invitation to adventure among the thorns.
This is one of the few pairs where Pei Di and Wang Wei went in quite different directions. Pei's poem is, as you say, all bucolic charm and suggestive fecundity, while Wei goes full-on Wicker Man rural cult. Wei sees more supernatural companions in the landscape in several other of the poems (https://tangpoetry.substack.com/p/natures-beauty-is-a-rich-delicacy, https://tangpoetry.substack.com/p/visitors-for-whom-the-flowers-bloom, https://tangpoetry.substack.com/p/wang-wei-finds-the-key-to-immortality), but this is the only pair where I think the tone really differs substantially. Perhaps it was the end of their trip and they were getting fed up of each other!