Meng Haoran

689-740

"Wandering Poet" Source: Don's Gallery of Chinese Painting, Bamboo Academy

Meng Haoran was one of the great Tang poets. Like Tao Qian, whom he admired, Meng failed at a life in politics and became a recluse in his native Hubei. He was friends with Li Bai and Wang Wei, to whom a parting poem is included below. In Spending the Night on Jian De River, it is tempting to think that the moons (the real one and its reflection) just out of reach allude to Li Bai's death, but Meng died more than 20 years before Li. An eerie premonition, perhaps?

Spending the Night on Jian De River

A drifting boat harbors by a foggy isle.
The sun sets on a pilgrim's newfound grief.
The moor is wide, the sky hangs low over the trees.
The river is clear; each moon just out of men's reach.

Goodbye to Wang Wei

Dead silence my last service
Each day's for naught, so I'll retire.
Longing to search fragrant fields, I'll go
With sorrow for the breaking of our fellowship.

Those that mark the paths mislead,
And few turn an ear to my lute these days.
All that's left to guard, my own guardedness.
I'll get back and shut that old garden gate.