Thoughts from a High Tower (by Wang Wei)

Wang Wei is most often heralded as a great nature poet, one of the most important early contributors to the tradition of Mountain and Stream poetry (山水詩) in Chinese literature.  But Wang had great range in his life and poetry, and covered a lot of ground in the subjects he addressed, writing not only about the countryside but also about the metropolitan centers of Chang'An and Luoyang, which were the twin capital cities of the Tang empire.

This is a landscape poem Wang wrote that addresses a distinctly human theme.  Written from high atop a tower that overlooked a river valley, dotted with villages and well-tended farmland, this poem resonates with a kind of anomie and almost sounds as if could have been written standing atop the observation deck of a modern skyscraper gazing out over the urban sprawl below.


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With Minister Wu Lang in the West Tower Pondering the Distant Vista

     

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Gazing from this high tower

Thoughts come and go

Eyes reach for the extremity

Yet still it eludes their grasp

A thousand mile vista

A snug pillow for rest 

A window from which to survey

Ten thousand rooms in a glance

Down through the ages

All these strangers passing by

Hurrying deep into the obscurity

Of some distant time and place   

Deep sorrow resides there

Along the riverbank

In a remote farmstead where

A solitary column of smoke rises

You can see the order of it

Everything neatly arranged

Thoughts proceed below

Following a well-trod path

But of my native place

It is nowhere to be seen

Just clouds and rain and emptiness

As if it were all one thing 

和使君五郎西楼望远思归

高楼望所思     目极情未毕

枕上见千里     窗中窥万室

悠悠长路人     暧暧远郊日

惆怅极浦外     迢递孤烟出

能赋属上才     思归同下秩

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故乡不可见     云水空如一