桃源行 王維 (701-761)
漁舟逐水愛山春，兩岸桃花夾去津。
坐看紅樹不知遠，行盡青溪忽視人。
山口潛行始隈隩，山開曠望旋平陸。
遙看一處攢雲樹，近入千家散花竹。
樵客初傳漢姓名，居人未改秦衣服。
居人共住武陵源，還從物外起田園。
月明松下房櫳靜，日出雲中雞犬喧。
驚聞俗客爭來集，競引還家問都邑。
平明閭巷掃花開，薄暮漁樵乘水入。
初因避地去人間，及至成仙遂不還。
峽裏誰知有人事，世中遙望空雲山。
不疑靈境難聞見，塵心未盡思鄉縣。
出洞無論隔山水，辭家終擬長游衍。
自謂經過舊不迷，安知峰壑今來變。
當時衹記入山深，青溪幾曲到雲林。
春來遍是桃花水，不辨仙源何處尋。
Ballad of the Peach Fountain Wang Wei (701-761)
To savour the
verdure of spring following a stream a fisherman rows his boat,
The ancient ford
is flanked on the banks by booming peach blows,
Ravished by the
crimson blossoms he is oblivious of how far he would go,
Presently at the
end of the stream he comes across some people,
Lurking into the
mountain along an anfractuous road,
Soon the landscape spreads into levels,
Looking afar he sees trees stand cloud shrouded,
Getting closer
he finds the multiple households are all veiled by blows and bamboos,
Coming across a
woodcutter who is still named in the Han times title,
Dwellers there
are still clad in Qin times clothes,
In this Peach
Fountain of Wuling all people here have built their nestles,
Here in this
outlandish world they’ve all built their farming households,
Amidst the pine
woods the casements and houses lie under the bright moon in placid tranquil,
The sun comes
out from the clouds in the morning amidst dog barks and cock crows,
On hearing a lay
outsider making them a call,
They gather in
no time as surprised as enthralled,
All trying to
take him home to enquire whence he comes at all,
At dawn they
sweep the alleys and passages of the fallen blows,
To avoid the Qin
tyranny in the first place, a fishing and a woodcutting household came to this
place along the stream at night fall,
Far away from
the tumultuous world,
Finding this place
a fairyland haven, never back to their old world would they recoil,
People in this vale
have long buried in oblivion all troubles of the outside world,
From afar people
just see an empty mountain shrouded in clouds,
The existence of
such a fairy haven has never been in anybody’s know,
Nostalgia for
one’s homeland can hardly be completely severed for ordinary people,
When one finally
discards one’s encumbers and wants to go out to see the world,
Mountains and
waters make no obstacles,
Leaving one’s
home before one goes gadding in abandon is the thing to do first of all,
If you think
having been there once you’ll never get lost,
But the mountain
and dales do keep changing in due course,
You will only
remember at first deeper and deeper into the mountain you kept hitting the
trail,
Approaching the
cloud shrouded woods you can hardly recall having passed how many rills,
When spring
comes the whole place will be peach blossoms waters swilled,
You’ll never tell
where the secret of the Peach Fountain is sealed.
