Drinking Wine
by
Tao Yuanming (Tao Qian) + + + Plucking chrysanthemums along the East fence; Gazing in silence at the southern hills; The birds flying home in pairs Through the soft mountain air of dusk— In these things there is a deep meaning, But when we are about to express it, We suddenly forget the words. Quoted from The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts, New York: Vintage Books, 1951, page 113, where the poem and translation are both uncredited. For me, this poem speaks of what haiku does not have few enough words to say. I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge, Then gaze long at the distant summer hills. The mountain air is fresh at the dusk of day: The flying birds two by two return. In these things there lies a deep meaning; Yet when we would express it, words suddenly fail us. Arthur Waley, translator. A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1919. |