The Guy Fawkes' Day fireworks have stopped so here is a poem about quiet solitude.
Deer Enclosure
Empty mountain, no man is seen.
Only heard are echoes of men’s talk.
Reflected light enters the deep wood
And shines again on blue-green moss.
Wang Wei (699-759), translated by Pauline Yu, quoted by Ena Alvarado.
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The Deer Enclosure. "Yorkshire Sculpture Park" by Jordanhill School D&T Dept is licensed under CC BY 2.0 |
Before two weeks ago, I hadn't know that deer enclosures are real. This
one is at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where the deer of erstwhile estate
could take shelter in bad weather. This poem makes me see this structure
full of deer, far from people, and lit by the reflected brightness of
sunshine on snow.
Further Reading
Ena Alvarado (2021). 'Wang Wei: Poet of Buddist Emptiness'. JSTOR Daily. Available from: https://daily.jstor.org/wang-wei-poet-of-buddhist-emptiness/ [accessed October 2021]
Eliot Weinburger, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei. (New York, 2016)
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