Poem for 8/18/22 - The Farewell and Lazy About Writing Poems by Wang Wei

Wang Wei (??), The Farewell (ca. 750 CE)

Dismounting, I offer my friend a cup of wine,
I ask what place he is headed to.
He says he has not achieved his aims,
Is retiring to the southern hills.
Now go, and ask me nothing more,
White clouds will drift on for all time.

See commentary to this poem here. 

 

Wang Wei (701-761) - “Lazy about writing poems”

(trans. Tony and Willis Barnstone and Xu Haixin)

With time I become lazy about writing poems.

Now my only company is old age.

In an earlier life I was a poet, a mistake,

and my former body belonged to a painter.

I can’t abandon habits of that life

and sometimes am recognized by people of this world.

My name and pen name speak my former being

but about all this my heart is ignorant.