Comments on: World Poetry Day https://taleblazers.org.uk/world-poetry-day/ Changing lives by connecting people with nature Mon, 22 Mar 2021 12:03:48 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 By: Rich Blagden https://taleblazers.org.uk/world-poetry-day/#comment-2 Mon, 22 Mar 2021 12:03:48 +0000 https://taleblazers.org.uk/?p=252#comment-2 I’m not really an expert on poetry, but I love verses that capture those moments of quiet joy that you often find in the outdoors. Standing alone on a quiet peak, sitting with your toes in a bubbling stream, just you and the world around you. I’ve been enjoying some old Chinese poems that capture that really well with very simple, understated language. I know a lot of the rhythms and timbre are lost in translation but for me that can sometimes just make it more poignant. So here is one from Li Bai, a wandering Chinese poet of the 8th century, perhaps the Kerouac of his time.

Why I live in the Green Mountains

In the mountains, you asked, I answered, most popular answer

Why do I live in the green mountains?
I laugh and answer not, my soul serene
I dwell in another paradise, where earth belongs to no man
Where peach trees blossom forever, and the rivers flow on and on

You ask, why I dwell on Green Mountain;
I smile and make no reply for my heart is at peace.
The peach-blossoms flow downstream and are gone forever,
I live in a world apart from among men.

I’m asked what the sense of living on Jade Mountain
I laugh and answer not, my heart at peace
I dwell in another heaven where no earthly man belongs
Where peach trees blossom and spring waters flow forever.

This translation comes from the 100 Tang Poems website, which is worth an explore if you enjoyed the poem above.

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