Willow waves

Wang River Collection no. 12

Willow Waves 
Wang Wei

A lacework hangs between two rows of willows, 
In glassy ripples, its reflection drifts. 
How different from their palace moat-side fellows, 
Whose twigs are stripped each spring as parting gifts

王维  柳浪 
分行结绮树，倒影入清漪。
不学御沟上，春风伤别离。 

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The word for willow (liǔ in modern Mandarin) has always sounded similar to the word for stay (liú), so a tradition in the Tang was to present someone leaving home with a willow twig, meaning, ‘I wish you could stay.’ Officials were often sent off to distant assignments when the roads became passable again after winter, so the willow trees that lined Chang’an’s canals had a tough time of it in the spring. Out in Wang Wei’s country estate, there was no such danger, and his willows produced a profusion of branches.

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

The reflections are the same colour as the pool;/in the breeze, they flutter like silk./We have ground to sit on, and shade;/no need to thank the Tao family for our time with them.

Three centuries earlier, the poet Tao Yuanming planted willow trees in his beautiful garden. Pei Di is suggesting that these willows are just as lovely.