Wang Wei Praises the River Wings-of-a-Kingfisher

Wang Wei Praises the River Wings-of-a-Kingfisher

I never go down the Yellow-Chrysanthemum River
   But rocked in my boat on Wings-of-a-Kingfisher Stream
That winds between silent and people-less peaks forever
   Mirroring cloud-high bluffs where the pine-woods dream.
I trust I may never go down to the beautiful river
   But by secretly-winding Wings-of-a-Kingfisher Stream.

Through a murmurous recitative and continual pondering
   Stone-broken jargon of many-voiced waters I go;
Boat-borne, through mazy leagues in the wilderness wandering,
   By shadowy reaches where the water-chestnuts grow;
And always, from near or far, aware of the pondering
   Stone-broken jargon and recitative as I row.

I never go down to Yellow-Chrysanthemum River
   Through the still, deep reaches where greenly the reeds are glassed,
But the morning glows, and my heart and the ripples quiver
   With the peace that will dawn when the lives of the stars are passed.
I never go worshipping down to the beautiful river,
   But I know the Eternal broods where the reeds are glassed.

The Theosophical Path, November 1929