孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
列仙文方诸青童君
List of the Immortals: Everywhere pure young gentlemen
|
大霞霏晨晖 元气无常形 玄辔飞霄外 八景乘高清 |
Great red clouds scatter in the dawn, as The Original Spirit takes its eternal form. Divinely bridled, I am flown beyond the sky As all directions fill with moral purity. |
|
手把玉皇袂 携我晨中生 玄庭自嘉会 金书拆华名 |
My hands grasp the Jade Emperor's sleeves And he carries me into the dawning. In a divine hall, I attend an auspicious feast Where gold scrolls denounce the famous. |
|
贤女密所妍 相期洛水輧 |
Virtuous women crowd me with their beauty And agree to meet me by the river in their carraiges. |
-- 孟郊
废话
At this point in his life, Meng Jiao wrote a short series of poems, the titles of which begin with "List of the Immortals." I haven't looked at the others yet. But this one seems like an elaborate joke. And one can only guess what it is about. Personally, I think he is making fun of his own fame.
You have to remember that Meng Jiao is very popular at court. No one really expects him to work his official job. They just want him to write his poetry. When he isn't writing poetry for powerful men, he's guiding important officials or scholars through the wilderness. (China in the Tang has river travel, some post roads, and wilderness. The only tame travel is between the capitals.) So maybe he's getting more attention than he's comfortable with as he approaches sixty. That's how this poem strikes me. He's become popular and famous without really trying. He probably expected to get exiled for his poetry by now like other poets he knows. But somehow, he can write anything and get away with it.
Final note. The couplet at the end is more like: "Virtuous women crowd around me with their beauty and make vague promises about meeting me down by the Luo River in their curtained carraiges." Groupies?