Chinese Poetry

The 2008 Olympics begin tonight (8/08/08)in China. China is becoming a major power player in the world. It's leaders have an ambitious agenda. There is a more gentle side to the Chinese culture. One can find that peaceful presence in it's poetry. To celebrate the opening of the 2008 Olympics, let us read some Chinese poems, as we get ready to honor excellence.

A Spring Day at the Farm

Pigeons coo on the roof
apricot orchards
bloom white at the edge of town

the farmers are out with axes
pruning the mulberry trees
hoeing watercourses

swallows hunt up old nests
old men sit in the sun
almanacs in their laps

I have forgotten my glass of wine
thinking of lost friends,
dead friends,
in a blaze of old pain.
by Wang Wei

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The entire day I searched for spring but
spring I could not find,
in my straw sandles I tramped among the
mountain peak clouds.
Home again, smiling, I finger a sprig of
fragrant plum blossoms;
Spring was right here on these branches in
all its glory!
by Plum Blossom Nun

On Climbing You-Chou Terrace

Ahead I cannot see the ancient faces,
Behind I cannot see the coming sages.
I brood upon the endlessness of Nature,
Lonely and sick at heart, with falling tears.
by Chen Ziang

Mt. Chungnan cottage

In middle age
I became fond of the Way.

Now I'm old, and settled
in a Chungnan cottage.

Sometimes, I get the notion
to wander off by myself

to marvelous places
I alone know,

hiking to the stream's source;
sitting, watching clouds arise.

Sometimes, I come across
an old recluse.

We chatter and laugh
and forget to go home.
by Wang Wei

Reclusion, Late Summer

To this place of retreat
the world does not follow;
but many old ailments heal here.

I polish words
of old poems;
view mountains,
and sleep outside my hut.

Colored clouds
crossing the setting sun;
cicadas ring
in the leaves of trees.

With this
my heart again knows happiness;
and who would have thought it,
without wine or money.
by Yao Ho