The Blue Brook
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
每逐青溪水。
随山将万转，
趣途无百里。
声喧乱石中，
色静深松里。
漾漾泛菱荇，
澄澄映葭苇。
我心素已闲，
清川澹如此。
请留磐石上，
垂钓将已矣。
English translation
I set out for the plain of Huanghua, following always the waters of the Blue Creek.
It turns with the hills ten thousand times, though the way is not a hundred li.
Its voice is loud among the tumbled rocks, its hue still within the deep pines.
Rippling, it floats the chestnut and the duckweed, limpid, it mirrors the reeds and rushes.
My heart has long been at peace, tranquil as this clear stream.
Let me stay upon the great flat rock, and end my days with a fishing line.
Meaning
Whenever I go to wander in the Huanghua valley, I always follow that blue-green stream.
The water winds a hundred turns to follow the hills, yet the course it runs is not a hundred li.
Its voice is loud among the tumbled rocks between the hills; the mountain colours are deep and still within the dense pine wood.
The water plants sway gently in the current; the reeds are mirrored clearly in the green water.
My heart has long been at ease, tranquil as the clear stream, free of all desire.
Would that I might stay upon the great flat stone beside the stream and pass my life in angling there.
Background
Read the background
This poem was probably written when Wang Wei first retired to the southern hills at Lantian. Another account places it during his journey into Shu. Wang Wei more than once followed the Qingxi stream into Huanghua Stream on his travels. He also wrote another poem, "From Dasan Onward: Through Dense Forest and Thick Bamboo, Along a Winding Plank Road for Forty or Fifty Li, to Huangniu Ridge and the Sight of Huanghua Stream," which likewise speaks of the mountain path there as "winding ten thousand times along the precipitous way" — a line that may be read alongside this poem's "ten thousand turns as it follows the mountain."