孟郊诗

Poems of Meng Jiao


Index

洛桥晚望

Gazing in the Evening from the Luo River Bridge


天津桥下冰初结
洛阳陌上人行绝
榆柳萧疏楼阁闲
月明直见嵩山雪

The sky below the bridge begins to ice over.
The streets of Luoyang now fall silent.
Desolate elms and willows stand sentinel by the tower.
In this bright moonlight, you can see snow on Mount Song.

-- 孟郊


废话

The poet is leaving the building in this poem. Only the "you can see" connects us to man's presence in the poem. Perhaps Meng Jiao is working at excising the poet from the poem as he brings in the ancient sweet south and the reality of the present north. We'll have to see if this continues to develop.

Mount Song (嵩山) is the central of the five sacred mountains of Daoism and the home of the original (long-since destroyed) Shaolin temple where Buddhism began in China. It is reasonably close to Luoyang, standing at 4900 feet in elevation to Luoyang's 470. So perhaps, on a clear night, you could actually see it from the river bottom in the city. Given Meng Jiao's current approach to poetry, you probably could.


Index