A Bird Returns Home (T'ao Yuan-ming - parts 1 and 2)

These are the first two parts of a four part poem I translated this morning by T'ao Yuan-ming.  For those of you unfamiliar with his work, T'ao is a precursor of the Tang poets, dating to the Six Dynasties period, with official dates given as 365-427 AD.  Known as the Hermit Poet, this series of poems is generally understood to be autobiographical inasmuch as T'ao was the first of the great Chinese poets who kicked over the traces of a career in the Imperial bureaucracy in favor of a return to his rural farmstead, with the bird returning home meant to be a stand-in for the poet himself.

Part One

Folding its wings

A bird returns home  

After flying off at dawn

Into the woods

Far away it pursued

Eight different routes

Resting near a cloudy peak

Until the breeze made

It uneasy and it flapped

Its wings again

Elsewhere seeking

Its heart’s content

Attending to the cry

Of other birds nearby

It then withdrew

To the shelter

Of a shady spot

 其一

翼翼归鸟

晨去于林

远之八表

近憩云岑

和风不洽

翻翮求心

顾俦相鸣

景庇清阴

Part Two

Folding its wings

A bird returns home

How high it had soared

How far it had flown

Although not naturally

Inclined to wandering

Seeing the forest

It felt fettered

Encountering clouds

It climbed and descended

Until the cry of other birds

Made it return home

Abandoning the road

In preference for leisure and

The pursuit of more

Instinctive pleasures 

Without interruption  

 其二

翼翼归鸟

载翔载飞

虽不怀游

见林情依

遇云颉颃

相鸣而归

遐路诚悠

性爱无遗