The Late Poems of Wang An-Shih

by Wang An-Shih, David Hinton (Translator)

A selection of poems by the ancient Chinese poet and statesman Wang Ah-Shih, translated by David Hinton.

Wang An-shih (1021-1086 C.E.) was a remarkable figure—not only one of the great Sung Dynasty poets, but also the most influential and controversial statesman of his time. Although Wang had little interest in the grandeur of high office and political power, he took the responsibility of serving the people seriously. He rose to become prime minister, and in this position he instituted a controversial system of radically egalitarian social reforms to improve the lives of China’s peasants. Once those reforms were securely in place, Wang retired to a reclusive life of artistic and spiritual self-cultivation.

It was after his retirement, practicing Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism and wandering the mountains around his home, that Wang An-shih wrote the poems that made his reputation. Short and plainspoken, these late poems contain profound multitudes–the passing of time, rivers and mountains, silence and Buddhist emptiness. They won him wide acclaim in China and beyond across the centuries. And in Hinton's breathtaking translations, Wang feels like a major contemporary poet with deep ecological insight and a questioning spirit.

Genres: Poetry, China, Classics

184 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 17, 2015

Reviews

[E. G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acknowledgments
Introduction

--Middle years
--Sent to a Monk
--Written on a Wall at the Monastery Where I've Stayed . . .
--Sitting Still on a Spring Day
--Visiting River-Serene
--Written on a Wall at Samadhi-Forest Monastery
--Steady-Shield Monastery
--Thinking of a Dream
--Wandering Bell Mountain
--Written on a Window at Samadhi-Forest Monastery
--I rollick
--Here, Now
--Autumn Night
--Who's infusing
--Here at Bell Mountain
--Accord All-Gather Comes Through Snow to Visit
--Following thoughts
--Here at River-Serene
--East Ridge
--Wandering Out with a Full Moon to Eightfold-Integrity River
--In My Words-Bright Library at Samadhi-Forest Monastery
--East River
--Self-Portrait
--Self-Portrait
--Death of My Horse
--In bamboo forest
--A Lone Kindred-Tree
--Sent to Candor-Sky
--At Manifest-Tao Spring
--Across a thousand
--Flourish Time-worn and I Wander Beguiled and Never Meet
--Dream
--Inviting Integrity-Met to Visit
--Returning Home from Bell Mountain at Dusk, Sent to a Monk
--Talking with Manifest Sky-Ascent
--Early Autumn
--At the Shrine-Tower of Ch'an Master Lumen-Serene
--Pondering My Host at Orchid-Gift Creek
--Following the Rhymes of Pattern-Unraveled's Poem . . .
--Golden-Tomb City
--Song for Grain
--At the Palace Gardens in River-Serene, Sent to Origin-Across
--In Jest on Bell Mountain, Given to Adept Gather-Grain
--River
--Five willows
--Sent to Jewel-Awake
--Sent to Assistant Magistrate Guide-Bell
--Sent to Abbot Whole-Quiet
--Thinking of Golden-Tomb City Long Ago
--Parting in River-Serene
--On a Farewell Journey to Send off Mend-Source . . .
--Climbing Up to Treasure-Master's Grave-Shrine
--Drifting South Creek
--Again at South-Creek Tower, Written on a Wall
--On a moonlit island bridge
--Written on Master Lake-Shadow's Wall
--Napping at noon
--Written on a Wall at Balance-Peace Post-Station
--Spring Rain
--Looking at a Painting of Lumen Island
--Above the Yangtze
--Leaving the City
--After Clouds Limitless by a Monk at Nirvana-Radiant . . .
--There's a Huge Pine Beside the Road, and People Think . . .
--Sun west and low
--Off-Hand Poem
--Spirit creatures
--Radiance-Hut
--Life at Samadhi-Forest Monastery
--Written on Eightfold-Integrity River
--Farewell to Gaze-Arrive
--With my goosefoot staff
--Suddenly
--Above the Yangtze
--Wandering at Delight-Mind Pavilion . . .
--Anchored on Abandon River
--A Spring Day
--Just to Say
--After Elder-Ease's Poem Buddha-Wind Ch'in
--Listening to Floodwater Past Midnight
--On Tower Heights
--Following Apricot-Blossom Rhymes
--Spring Skies Clear
--Sent to Abbot Whole-Repose
--A Country Walk
--Pure-Apparent Monastery
--Cricket Weaving-Song
--On this side, flood-strewn
--Ninth Month, Yi Year of the Snake, On Climbing . . .
--River Rain
--Written on a Wall at Source-Aware Monastery's . . .
--At Broken-Tomb Shores
--Farewell to Candor-Achieve
--Winter-Solstice Sacrifice
--The Ancient Pine
--Late Spring
--In Jest, Sent to Abbot Empty-White
--At Dragon-Spring Monastery's Stone Well
--At the Shrine-Hut on Eightfold-Integrity River
--Wandering Bell Mountain
--Autumn Wind
--Farewell at the River Tower
--Bell Mountain
--Meeting an Old Friend at Splendor-Hoard Monastery
--A Moonlit Night in Mid-Autumn, Sent to Broad-Origin . . .
--South of Town, Leaving
--This Spirit-Vulture Mountain
--Farewell to a Monk Leaving for Heaven-Terrace Mountain
--Parting in River-Serene
--Following Prosper Bright-Gather's Rhymes
--Following the Rhymes of Abbot Elder-Guide's Poem . . .
--Thoughts on Bell Mountain
--Plum Blossoms Along the Canal
--Skies Clearing
--Hair white
--Thoughts Sent on My Way Home from River-Serene . . .
--Following the Rhymes of a Poem Sent by Encompass-Anew
--A Friend in Mourning Visits River-Serene
--Recognizing Myself
--The Ancient Monastery
--Sent to the Painter, Sage-Cloud, in River-Serene
--Summer Night on a Boat, Chill in the Air
--On mountain slopes
--At the Mouth of Lumen River
--Drifting Grain-Thresh River
--Old now, tangled
--Written on a Wall at Half-Mountain Monastery
--Poking Fun at My White Hair
--White Hair's Answer
--Above the River
--On the Terrace, for Mind-Source
--Gazing North
--I can't see anything of this autumn day
--Reading History
--Chants
--Thoughts as I Lie Alone
--Cut Flowers

Notes
Finding List
Sources

[Eadweard · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s all mirage illusion, like cinnabar-and-azure paintings, this
human world. We wander here for a time, then vanish into dust.


Things aren’t other than they are. That’s all anyone
can know.
Don’t ask if this thing I am today is the thing I was long ago.
----



Ravaged chrysanthemums blacken. Autumn wind returns,
and rain like the rain when early plums ripen to
yellow

Hand in hand, why talk? We gaze together into grief every-
where in sight. Isn’t this where mind knows itself utterly?
----




Remnant gravestones sunk and buried in springtime grasses,
winds over and over spirit up whirls of dust across the land.

Past midnight, pearl and jade lay scattered on gravemounds,
and somehow people still need to beg for the least offerings.


Remnant coffins will poke out how many springs from now,
and tangled weeds in desolate winds will bury magic horses.

It isn’t like long ago, gravemound guests drunk and well-fed:
now they come gathering sticks and dry grass for their fires.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I don't review poetry, finding it an exercise akin to castrating a rabid narwhal, I will instead slip you a savory tidbit to entice you:

"Alone in recluse quiet can be enough,
reality absolute itself such clear joy.

and mountains never hold eyes back,
river sounds never grate against ears.

Suddenly, there's nothing at all to be.
What I am now I am, and am, and am."

[Anima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Introduction- absolutely outstanding! Here are 2 wonderful excerpts
'Absence and Presence are the two fundamental elements in the cosmology of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (ca. 6th century B.C.E.), the seminal Taoist text that first articulated the philosophical framework shared by the artist-intellectuals who created classical Chinese culture. Presence is simply the empirical universe....and Absence the generative emptiness from which this ever-changing realm of Presence perpetually emerges.
Wang An-shih famously reinterpreted a key passage in the Tao Te Ching to emphasize these deep cosmological dimensions. For fifteen hundred years, the passage has been read:
"Free of perennial desire, you see the mystery,
and full of perennial desire, you see appearance'
Wang read these lines with the caesura in different place, creating a new reading that became standard throughout the centuries that followed:
"In perennial Absence, you see mystery,
and in perennial Presence, you see appearance.
This couplet appears in the Tao Te Ching's first chapter, which is a concise outline of Lao Tzu's cosmology...
"A Tao called Tao isn't the perennial Tao.
A name that names isn't the perennial name:

the named is mother to the ten thousand things,
but the unnamed is origin to all heaven and earth."
...Absence is emptiness only in the sense that it is empty of particular forms.It is reality seen as one undifferentiated tissue, while Presence is reality seen in its differentiated forms, the ten thousand things..."

"...Though he earned a national reputation for his scholarship and administrative abilities during his younger years in government service, Wang was never anxious to be involved in the pomp and circumstance of life in the central government at the capital....At the age of thirty-three, Wang finally finally took a position in the capital, where he slowly rose through increasingly important positions. He wrote some poetry in those years, mostly rather mediocre poems of political and social commentary, a reflection of his passionate preoccupation with government work, though he occasionally wrote poems exploring his Taoist/Ch'an interests.China was enjoying a long period of relative peace and prosperity, but there were unresolved issues that increasingly threatened society: constant struggles with 'barbarian' invasions...; growing impoverishment of farmers and small merchants; inadequate tax structure, and so on...Wang sent a petition to the emperor, his famous 'Ten-Thousand-Word Petition." which outlines his political theory and wholesale restructuring of government and society....Toward the end of that time, a reform-minded emperor came to power, and he appointed Wang provincial-governor in River-Serene...Wang soon became the emperor's most trusted advisor, serving first as Grand Councilor...he instituted a wholesale reform of society during those years...hoping to resolve the nation's structural problems and improve the lives of common people.
Wang's reforms were guided by strict pragmatism and a belief that if the common people are prosperous and happy the country as a whole will flourish....Nevertheless, the strain of work and relentless criticism did wear him down, causing him to retire ...At the age of fifty-five, after eight years as the emperor's chief advisor and policy maker...he retired to a reclusive life in the countryside near River-Serene.. In addition to his poetic practice, Wang spent those years engaged in intensive scholarly work, producing many volumes of commentaries on traditional classics and Buddhist sutras, as well as a grand etymological dictionary that probed the philosophical dimensions revealed by the pictographic histories of ideograms..
Forty years after Wang's death, northern China was lost to 'barbarian' invaders, and for centuries Wang and his radical ideas were blamed for the catastrophe. Only recently have historians and political thinkers begun to see Wang as a courageous and pragmatic reformer whose policies had the potential to make society work for the common people rather than just the privileged few...."
.

Spring Rain

'Bitter mist hides spring colors. Grief-
drizzle sickens the splendor of things.

That dark isolate wonder impossible
now, I swill down a cup of dusk haze"

Winter-Solstice Sacrifice

'Bright stars are sad and tired. Moon is a
ragged confusion.
Earth's ten thousand holes fill with wind
and start grieving.

People scatter through temple gates.
Lamp flames go dark.
Most of the time, we're alone searching
remnants of dream.'

Cut flowers

'Getting this old isn't much fun,
and it's worse stuck in bed, sick.

I draw water and arrange flowers,
comforted by their scents drift,

scents adrift, gone in a moment.
And how much longer for me?

Cut flowers and this long-ago I:
it's so easy forgetting each other.'

[Samuel Parkinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's no question that David Hinton has done us good service in bringing Wang An-Shih's poems into English. There's so little Chinese poetry from this period translated into English.

Moreover, the best of the poems here are delightful - simple, clear and brief. Some of the late poems, shot through with the anguish of old age, grief as his political reforms were dismantled, and sheer anger at those who were responsible, are very poignant.

Nonetheless, the book is disappointing. There are two problems - his presentation of the man, and the poetry itself.

As for the man, Hinton seems to project his own variety of Buddhist philosophy onto his poets Here Wang An-Shih is presented as a delightful wandering Taoist, a man with a wonderful and brilliant career. There is truth in this, but Hinton offers no hint that Wan An-Shih, whatever his aims, was a man who many hold responsible for brutal suffering and mass starvation, after his reforms derailed the Chinese economy. Nor would you think from the book that this man was responsible for the silencing and exiling of all those who disagreed with him, for creating an atmosphere in Chinese politics that was poisonous and dangerous.

Rather, we have a delightful Eastern mystic dispensing lovely wisdom. This is the same figure that most of his poets cut, and it feels like this changes and squeezes the poetry itself as Hinton tries to make these men into philosophers who present his own view of the world.

The poetry itself is not bad when it is simple. But Hinton, as with much of the rest of his vast range of translations, reduces many poems to fortune-cookie faux profundity. At many points it is simply incomprehensible, as he chooses to string together pretty words that completely overlay the actual meaning of the original. There's no question that Chinese poetry, with its startling economy of words, is hard to translate, but it does usually mean something! Even the more comprehensible lines can be pretty weird - 'steaming snowflakes'? Fish frolicking their flappers?

The poetry sounds suspiciously similar to Hinton's translations of other poets, at least the ones I have read. He smooths out the differences between them and remakes them in his own image.

Further, there is no taste here of the way poets of the period actually worked. See, for instance Alfreda Murck's 'Poetry and Painting in Song China: The Subtle Art of Dissent', which presents the poetry of Wang's exiled enemies. That's a hard, academic book, but it does show how poetry of the period interleaved layers of dense and complex allusion, without which the main point of the poem often isn't clear at all.

Plenty people clearly enjoy Hinton's translations. The reviews of them make that very clear. If you like what you read in it, enjoy! If you want an accurate translation that's faithful to the original author and intent of the text, on the other hand, there are many much better translators.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poetic themes are less varied than those of Li Bai or Du Fu, but they are wise and wonderful nevertheless. The translator’s commentary on the impact of Taoist ideas on the poet are helpful.

[Edward Rathke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simplicity. Beauty.

There's not much more to say. The poems are deeply informed by Zen Buddhism, which gives a strong sensation of impermanence to the world he writes about. He writes about the mountains, nature, and stillness.

[Richard Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Wang An-shih.

I just can't enjoy this translation. This is the fifth book I've read by this translator, and I never like his style. The second and third books I read of his were sort of accidents--I didn't notice when I ordered them who did the translations. The last two--this and one other--I was trying to work my way through my issues with the way he put Chinese poetry into English. I've really failed.

That's a lot of attempts. Either I'm an idiot or a remarkably good sport, because I should have learned well before this. To be fair to me, I've tried other things I didn't like way more times than this. (Beer. I'm talking about beer. I want to like it but I just don't. Other people like it a lot and I think I should too. Did I enjoy the last glass of beer I had? No. Not at all. Will I try beer again someday? Almost certainly. Will I learn anything? Probably not.)

Here are two poems and translations that I liked a lot.

Gazing North

Hair whiter still, I ache to see those long-ago northlands,
but keep to this refuge: goosefoot staff, windblown trees.

Pity the new moon: all that bright beauty, and for whom?
It's dusk. Countless mountains face each other in sorrow.

------------------------------------

Written on a Wall at Half-Mountain Monastery

When I wander, heaven starts raining,
and when I stop, rain sets out for home.

How could rain be my own wandering?
Meeting here was that carefree and easy.

Tone; style; content; mood. I love it.

Here's one that doesn't work for me.

Anchored on Abandon River

Creaking oars quicken. River sun
sinks into azure distances. There's

stillness in my wandering. Tides
drift east and west, day and night.

If you prefer that latter, or if the difference tripping me up isn't immediately obvious and off-putting, you'll love the collection. Unironically. Go for it.

Mine tastes like beer.

[Patti K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection was published in 2015 with the translation by
David Hinton, a very well-respected scholar, author, and translator.
Wang was a prime minister who sought many reforms before
becoming a poet wanderer. His years are 1021-1086 in China.
Very lyrical, yet spare Zen poems that feel almost like magic to
the reader. "Isolate mystery may deepen,/but I still long to see you
wandering toward me." And also, "But in this/altar of night, who
could match the elegance of wind?"