Mooring at Twilight in Yuyi District
- Poetry of Wei Yingwu
《夕次盱眙县》Five-character-ancient-verse
Composed during Wei Yingwu's journey to assume the governorship of Suzhou, this poem captures an evening stopover at XuYi county by the Huai River. Facing the vast, silent twilight landscape, the poet's profound homesickness emerges through meticulous descriptions of travel scenes, seamlessly blending journey's solitude with nostalgia in a resonant fusion of emotion and scenery.
Furling my sail near the town of Huai,
I find for harbour a little cove
Where a sudden breeze whips up the waves.
The sun is growing dim now and sinks in the dusk.
People are coming home. The bright mountain-peak darkens.
Wildgeese fly down to an island of white weeds.
...At midnight I think of a northern city-gate,
And I hear a bell tolling between me and sleep.
落帆逗淮镇，停舫临孤驿。
浩浩风起波，冥冥日沉夕。
人归山郭暗，雁下芦洲白。
独夜忆秦关，听钟未眠客。
- Why Chinese poems is so special?
- The most distinctive features of Chinese poetry are: concision- many poems are only four lines, and few are much longer than eight; ambiguity- number, tense and parts of speech are often undetermined, creating particularly rich interpretative possibilities; and structure- most poems follow quite strict formal patterns which have beauty in themselves as well as highlighting meaningful contrasts.
- How to read a Chinese poem?
- Like an English poem, but more so. Everything is there for a reason, so try to find that reason. Think about all the possible connotations, and be aware of the different possibilities of number and tense. Look for contrasts: within lines, between the lines of each couplet and between successive couplets. Above all, don't worry about what the poet meant- find your meaning.
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