孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
桐庐山中赠李明府
A Lute Tree Cottage in the Hills, for Li Mingfu
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静境无浊氛 清雨零碧云 千山不隐响 一叶动亦闻 |
A peaceful place, free from disturbances. Pure rain falls from blue-grey clouds. All these hills don't make for silence. You can hear every leaf tremble. |
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即此佳志士 精微谁相群 欲识楚章句 袖中兰茝薰 |
Here is a beautiful man of high integrity. Profound, beyond all common measure. If you wish to understand the writings of Chu, Tuck these fragrant orchids in your sleeve. |
-- 孟郊
废话
To me, this poem, taken with some of the other recent ones, shows a higher quality of poetics in Meng Jiao's work. It's as if he has won his struggle to bring the ideas of Five Gurglings into his poems.
I also wanted to mention that "for" in the title is actually "gift" or "gifted to" (赠). It came to me recently that this may indicate that the poem was sent to the person it was written for. You'll see this character in many of Meng Jiao's titles. Perhaps this was how he became known, by sending so many poems to people he met. It's an alternative to Bai Juyi's and Yuan Zhen's covering every post-house in the empire with their poetry inscriptions.