In Reply to P’ei Ti

By Wang Wei

Translated from Chinese by David Hinton

July 1, 2004

China

The cold river spreads boundless away.
Autumn rains darken azure-deep skies.

You ask about WholeSouth Mountain:
the mind knows beyond white clouds.

From Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China, forthcoming from New Directions.

The cold river spreads boundless away.
Autumn rains darken azure-deep skies.

You ask about WholeSouth Mountain:
the mind knows beyond white clouds.

From Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China, forthcoming from New Directions.

Wang Wei (701-61) may be China's most immediately…

David Hinton has translated many volumes of classical…