Written at Wangchuan After Long Rains
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
蒸藜炊黍饷东菑。
漠漠水田飞白鹭，
阴阴夏木啭黄鹂。
山中习静观朝槿，
松下清斋折露葵。
野老与人争席罢，
海鸥何事更相疑。
English translation
Long rain over the empty woods, the cooking smoke rises slowly, they steam the greens and boil the millet for the east fields.
Wide and dim the flooded fields where white egrets fly, dark and deep the summer woods where orioles sing.
In the hills I practice stillness and watch the morning hibiscus, beneath the pines, a pure fast, I break the dew-wet mallow.
The old countryman has ceased to contend for a seat, why then should the sea gull still be wary of me?
Meaning
After days of rain, smoke rises slowly from the cooking fires of the village among the sparse trees; the plain tea and simple meal are ready to be carried to the men ploughing east of the village.
Over the broad flat paddies a line of white egrets skims through the air, and from the thick woods at the field's edge comes the sweet warbling of orioles.
In the hills I cultivate myself and watch the hibiscus open at dawn and fade at dusk; beneath the pines I eat plain food and break off mallows wet with dew, touching no meat.
I am already a man who has withdrawn from the official world of fame and profit — why then should the gulls still suspect me?
Background
Read the background
This poem is a work of Wang Wei's later period. In those later years he began a life that was at once official and reclusive, and toward the world at large he held an attitude of indifference, as if nothing mattered either way. At first he lived in retirement in the Zhongnan Mountains; later he acquired the villa of Song Zhiwen at Wangchuan in Lantian and lived still more at ease, "drifting back and forth by boat with his fellow seeker of the Way, Pei Di, playing the zither and composing poems," and keeping a vegetarian diet while intoning the scriptures: "after withdrawing from court he would burn incense and sit alone, devoting himself to meditation and recitation." This poem was written during Wang Wei's retirement at Wangchuan in Lantian.