青溪
王维

言入黄花川， 每逐青溪水。
随山将万转， 趣途无百里。
声喧乱石中， 色静深松里。
漾漾泛菱荇， 澄澄映葭苇。
我心素已闲， 清川澹如此。
请留盘石上， 垂钓将已矣。

A Green Stream
Wang Wei

I have sailed the River of Yellow Flowers,
Borne by the channel of a green stream,
Rounding ten thousand turns through the mountains
On a journey of less than thirty miles.
Rapids hum over heaped rocks;
But where light grows dim in the thick pines,
The surface of an inlet sways with nut-horns
And weeds are lush along the banks.
Down in my heart I have always been as pure
As this limpid water is.
Oh, to remain on a broad flat rock
And to cast a fishing-line forever! 

 
About the poet:
Wang Wei(699-759) was a poet, artist and musician. He also served in court as a high ranking official until the death of his wife when he retired into a Buddhist monastery on the banks of the river Wang. In Wang Wei's poetry the landscape is clearly seen through the eyes of the painter, and written mainly in quatrains, his descriptions of mountains, valleys and the rare contact with other people is displayed in a very concrete image. Much of his work give an insight into the weekend countryside retreats which many courtiers used to escape the pressure of high society court protocol, and teach us the value of nature through the Buddhist perception.

The poem describes the scenary of a unknown river. The poet uses musicallanguage to show us a harmonious pastoral picture. The peace and tranquility of the countryside lines with the inner feelings of the poet.