English Rendering
Gazing up at a distant crag, exchanging loving glances.
I ate some cassia bark to help me calm my mind.
If I live to be a thousand, will we ever meet like this?
Why this fragrance as I go my way alone?
Trying to Put a Small Mountain Down on Paper
- Poetry of Xu Hui
《拟小山篇》
Original Text (中文原文)
仰幽岩而流盼，抚桂枝以凝想。
将千龄兮此遇，荃何为兮独往。
Analysis & Context
In this poem, she seems amorously wistful, wishful, exchanging glances with someone who isn't even there. Although as an imperial consort, she is not up in the mountains alone. She would have female attendants and male escorts. But she wishes someone particular were here.
Reader's Companion
The Essence of the Verse
Classical Chinese poetry thrives on Concision and Ambiguity. Without tense or number, the words create a timeless space where the reader becomes the co-creator of the poem's meaning.
Reading Between the Lines
Look for Contrasts: light and shadow, movement and stillness. Don't just translate the words; feel the Yijing (artistic conception) that lingers long after the last character.
- The Summit Temple
- <Prelude to Water Melody> Sent to Ziyou on Mid-autumn Festival
- Invitation to Wine
- Question and Answer in the Mountains
- Cold sheet
- Coming Home ( Returning Home )
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