Wang Wei and his Moment of Zen - Tang Poetry Masters Series

Today, the podcast gets to Wang Wei and a Buddhist poem he wrote with the eye of a painter. Wang Wei is the least popular of the three High Tang poets, at least, since the Song Dynasty, but, back in the day, he was the most popular, more popular than Li Bai and Du Fu. We'll travel to his empty mountain and see if we aren't too disturbed by women doing the laundry to learn a bit about Chinese poetry. 

Living in the Mountains on the Cusp of Fall

Empty mountain after a new rain, 

The air is late, fall is coming

The bright moon shines amid the pines,

the clear stream's water flows over a rock. 

Hubbub in the bamboo, the washing lady returning

the fishing boat pushing through lotuses. 

And then it happens that the flowers of spring die,

Me, a hermit, I can hang here for a while.

山居秋暝

空山新雨後，天氣晚來秋。 明月松間照，清泉石上流。 竹喧歸浣女，蓮動下漁舟。 隨意春芳歇，王孫自可留。