Learning to write a 五言绝句 from Tang poet 李嶠 LiQi’s work, Wind, known for talking about the wind without ever mentioning “wind”, yet every line paints a dynamic picture showing the power of wind at work.
《風》依風
解落三秋葉,
能開二月花.
過江千尺浪，
入竹萬竿斜。
AC Tang’s version,
炊烟摇不停 cooking smoke wave non stop
柳絮向江横 willow flower towards river horizontal
槳卧扁舟動 oar lain small boat move
雲騰众岭新 cloud rising all mountain anew
Smoke from a chimney waves incessantly
Willow flowers fly horizontally towards the river
An oar sleeps on a small moving boat
Rising clouds renew all across the mountain range
The Master's use a numeric value for each third character on a given line. My version uses cardinal points instead.
1 捲皺東海浪 Curling waves of the Eastern Ocean like knitted brows
2 飛騰南天門 Soaring to the very Gate of Southern Heaven
3 石走西漠沙 Running stones of the western desert turning into sand
4 鵬昇北冥鯤 And the roc rising from northern dark region leviathan.
1 The eastern ocean is where the Immortal Isles are located.
2 The entrance to the celestial realm
4 alluding to Chuang Tzu’s 逍遙遊
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