LIU ZONG YUAN the OLD fisherman

#lizongyuan #chinese poetry #oldfisherman

The painting I showed you in the last post was an illustration probably of this famous poem.

Beware there is another famous poem with only four lines about a fisherman by this writer who was also noted for his prose essays.

Here are my notes and VERY ROUGH translation VERY ROUGH

I'm hoping for feedback so I can finish it.

THE OLD FISHERMAN

yu weng ye bang xi yan su
fishing elder night side west cliff spends night

West Cliff may be a place name not just a description
Whether the fishing elder was Liu Zong Yuan himslef or a different person I leave you to decide!

xiao ji qing xiang ran chu zhu

first light draws water clear Xiang lights fire CHU bamboo
Most translations just say river and don't mention its the Xiang River
Chu bamboo was he cooking with dry bamboo using a bamboo steamer or what ?
Chu is the name of an independent realm predating the unification covering the area Liu Zong Yuan was travelling thru so is CHU bamboo actually a cooking style or what?

Note the U final rhyme scheme
(then) yan xiao then into the mists disappears (as) sun rises not see man

ai nai yi sheng shan shui cui

alas regret literary form of verb to be or an adverb ? one sound landscape green
there is no mention in the original text of an oar so what is the sound ?

turn see sky edge down stream mid current

cliff above not have heart/mind cloud(s) each other one by one moving

so just as the river flows on so do the clouds above in the sky

Lets tidy that up

The old fisherman for the night moors beside West Cliff

At daybreak draws clear water from the Xiang cooks with Chu bamboo

Into the mists he disappears when the sun rises
or the mists disappear when the sun rises I no longer see the man ?

again who is making the one sound ? the poet or the fisherman ?

sighing make one sound at the verdant landscape

turning I look at the skys edge down mid current

above the cliffs mindlessly the clouds follow each other

Comments invited