Adrift in Twilight (Wang Wei)

An autumn evening can be unsurpassed in its tranquility.  This is something that the great Tang poets knew for certain, and they left us with many excellent poems bearing witness to the fact.  Here is a poem I translated this morning by one of my favorites - Wang Wei.  We all know how it works.  An October afternoon such as today, brilliant as it is, will begin to fade away that much sooner, and twilight moves forward correspondingly.  The net effect is that we are gently lulled into submission to the advance of darkness by a few inches every day.

The autumn sky

Is suffused with clarity

Once more far distant

The human world recedes

Calm and unhurried

A crane stands

By the sand’s edge

The clouds wrapped twice

Around the mountain

The ripples subside slowly

Stilled at twilight’s request

A spotless moon has

Idly ascended into place

In the night alone

I take up my paddle

Hesitant to go further

Much less return

泛前陂

秋空自明迥      况复远人间

畅以沙际鹤     兼之云外山

澄波淡将夕      清月皓方闲

此夜任孤棹     夷犹殊未还

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