孟郊诗

Poems of Meng Jiao


Index

春雨后

After Spring Rain


昨夜一霎雨
天意苏群物
何物最先知
虚庭草争出

Last night a sudden downpour.
Heaven's will: Make everything new.
And what was the very first to respond?
New grass sprouting in the empty courtyard.

-- 孟郊


废话

In some of these later short poems, Meng Jiao is leaving behind literary tradition and self-involvement. What remains is pure poetry such as found in Zen poetry in Japan. A kind of twenty-syllable haiku. I wonder if there are instances of this from prior to the very early 800s.


Index