P e n ta s y l l a biC Sh i P oe t ry : l anD s C a P e anD Fa rm s t e aD P oe m s 1236 The pond’s fish thinks of its former depths. 池魚思故淵 (chí yú sī gù yuān)
Clearing land at the edge of the southern wilds, 開荒南野際 (kāi huāng nán yĕjì)
8 Guarding simplicity, I returned to my farm. 守拙歸園田 (shŏu zhuō guī yuán tián)
The homestead amounts to ten-odd mou, 方宅十餘畝 (fāng zhái shí yú mŭ)
10 With a thatched hut of eight or nine bays. 草屋八九間 (căo wū bā jiŭ jiān)
Elms and willows shade the rear eaves, 榆柳蔭後簷 (yú liŭ yìn hòu yán)
12 Peach and plum line up in front of the hall. 桃李羅堂前 (táo lĭ luó táng qián)
In a haze lie the distant villages, 曖曖遠人村 (ài ài yuăn rén cūn)
14 Indistinct is the smoke above the houses. 依依墟里煙 (yī yī xū lĭ yān)
A dog barks somewhere in the deep alley, 狗吠深巷中 (gŏu fèi shēn xiàng zhōng)
16 A cock crows from atop the mulberry tree. 雞鳴桑樹顛 (jī míng sāng shù diān)
My home is unsoiled by worldly dust, 戶庭無塵雜 (hù tíng wú chén zá)
18 Within empty rooms I have peace to spare. 虛室有餘閒 (xū shì yŏu yú xián)
For long I have lived within a cage, 久在樊籠裡 (jiŭ zài fán lóng lĭ)
20 And now I may return to nature. 復得返自然 (fù dé făn zì rán)
[TYMJJJ, 73]
The poem’s structure divides into three distinct parts, connected by familiar
tropic markers. Lines 1–4 constitute a statement of the poet’s natural disposition
and, implicitly, an explanation for his withdrawal from office. The poet’s innate
love of nature and his perennial inability to get on with the world lead him to de-
clare the last thirteen years (emended from “thirty”) in officialdom to have been a
mistake.2 A metaphoric couplet, serving as a bridge between the discursive opener
and a series of descriptive couplets, reiterates the poet’s natural inclinations. Just
like the caged bird and trapped fish, the poet longs for his native place. By some
external intervention, these creatures became confined to a cage, a pond, or the
dusty net (that is, official life). The image of displaced animals longing for home
is a conventional trope dating from Han poetry about travelers (for example, C5.1),
and its use here effectively “naturalizes” the poet’s desire to leave office and return
to his farm.
The second part of the poem consists of an extended description of the material
circumstances of the poet’s rustic life: from details about the size of his farm,
the type of trees surrounding his home, to neighboring villages. This description
vividly illustrates the value of the poet’s choice of lifestyle. Next, an allusive cou-
plet (lines 15–16), lifted almost verbatim from a Han ancient-style poem and pos-
sibly referring to a passage in chapter 80 of the Dao de jing (Book of the Way and Its
Power)—on the peaceful coexistence between neighboring communities that can
hear, each in the other, dog barks and cock crows yet have no contact with each
other—caps the idea developed in previous lines of a certain rustic tranquillity and
harmony. The allusive nature of the couplet does not preclude it from being part
of the perceived scene, in view of the descriptive couplets preceding it. Its philo-
sophical point, however, is more remarkable and makes it an apt transition to the
meditation in the final part of the poem.