Wang Wei > Quotes

“Seated alone by shadowy bamboos,

I strum my lyre and laugh aloud;

None know that I am here, deep in the woods;

Only the bright moon comes to shine on me.

”
― Wang Wei

“Clear waters drift through the immensity of a tall forest.
In front of me a huge river mouth
receives the long wind.
Deep ripples hold white sand
and white fish swimming as in a void.
I sprawl on a big rock,
billows nourishing my humble body.
I gargle with water and wash my feet.
A fisherman pauses out on the surf.
So many fish long for bait. I look
only to the east with its lotus leaves.”
― Wang Wei

“Watching wild landscapes I forget distance
and come to the water's edge.”
― Wang Wei

“The autumn hill gathers the remaining light,
A flying bird chases after its companion.
The green color is bright
And brings me into the moment,
like a sunset mist that has no fixed place”
― Wang Wei

“I burned incense, swept the earth, and waited
for a poem to come...

Then I laughed, and climbed the mountain,
leaning on my staff.
How I'd love to be a master
of the blue sky's art:

see how many sprigs of snow-white clouds
he’s brushed in so far today”
― Wang Wei

“And you--if you make it this far, you've found your way home.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“We gaze off this tower into our thoughts.
Feelings wide-open to the far end of sight”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Noble-minded ones fill the ranks of heaven,
but simple people gladly keep their distance”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Stop searching and you arrive here

where people wander without danger,
look without seeing profound depths.

You who drift a world of dust hoping
to return--what other home is there?”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Everything dream here in this human life,
he's easily wild, maybe singing some song.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Lotus blossoms adrift out across treetops
flaunt crimson calyces among mountains.

At home beside this stream, quiet, no one
here. Scattered. Scattered open and falling.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“I no doubt painted in some former life,
roamed the delusion of words in another,

and habits linger. Unable to get free,
I somehow became known in the world,

but my most fundamental name remains
this mind still here beyond all knowing.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Here, green moss on rock grows pure
and delicate grass beneath pines soft,

birds outside the window sing idleness
and tigers at the steps are high-minded.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“After so many years, I'm suddenly old,
and each day my hair turns whiter still,

but wandering here, a glance between
all heaven and earth, who stays long?”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“I'm crossing some border, local customs
changing, and the way people speak.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Crystalline waters grow quiet at nightfall.
Moonlight infusing idleness everywhere,

I trust myself to this isolate paddle, this
observance on and on, no return in sight.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“A Red Peony

Among captivating greens idle and serene,
its red robes are shallow, and then so deep.

A blossom's heart is grief-torn? In all this
spring color, who could fathom the heart?”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Bird song and tumbling blossoms scatter through tangled confusion away.
Streamside door and mountain window all idleness and silence, silence--

up in those gorges, who would guess the great human drama even exists?
And when people in town gaze out, they see distant empty-cloud mountains.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Done struggling for a place in that human realm, I'm just this
old-timer of the wilds. So why are these seagulls still suspicious?”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Of your bones now buried white cloud, this much remains
forever: streams cascading empty toward human realms.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Out beyond the river it goes all the way:
grief and sorrow, a lone plume of smoke,

and you think of going back, of offering
your lofty talent to those who need you.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“and knowing you're one among things,
you know how trifling it is to be human.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“We wander life, no way back. Even a simple
birdcall starts us all dreaming of home again.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“In these twilight years, I love tranquility
alone. Mind free of all ten thousand affairs,

self-regard free of all those grand schemes,
I return to my old forest, knowing empty.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“We're both travelers dark-eyed with love
and both possessed of white-cloud mind.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Come--we'll show each other the way.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“A mountain cloud all grief and sorrow,
I drift the end of an empty day, aimless,

and what have I to do with people now?”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Same as ever. Nothing much changed, old
friend. Why grieve over a timeworn face?”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“No one seen. Among empty mountains,
hints of drifting voice, faint, no more.

Entering these deep woods, late sunlight
flares on green moss again, and rises.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei

“Setting out alone in old age, emptiness
knowing itself here in such splendor,

I often hike up to where streams end,
gaze into a time newborn clouds rise.

If I meet some old-timer in these woods,
we laugh and talk, all return forgotten.”
― Wang Wei, The Selected Poems of Wang Wei