孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
终南山下作
Written below the Zhongnan mountains
|
见此原野秀 始知造化偏 山村不假阴 流水自雨田 |
You can see the plains roll away from here Where one comes to know different blessings. Mountain villages are free of oppressive shadows. Their rivers are a constant rain for their fields. |
|
家家梯碧峰 门门锁青烟 因思蜕骨人 化作飞桂仙 |
Every house leads up to blue peaks. Every gate enfolds its fragrant smoke. They call to mind those who shed their bones And fly off through the cassia trees as immortals. |
-- 孟郊
废话
Just a few notes. The plains roll away west and north from the mountains, towards the lands of the Uighur, the Mongol, the Tibetans. This western region is made up of great military districts with commanders who sometimes vie for the throne. Line 3 has the sense of the mountains being free of the unfair oppression which overshadows the "civilized" villages, which are more easily governed and taxed. Line 8 is literally "change into flying cassia immortals." So it's possible that either "flying cassia (or laurel) (飞桂) or "cassia immortal" (桂仙) is a lost bigram with its own meaning, flying- or immortal-wise.