Sh i P oe t ry : anC i e n t anD r e C e n t s t y l e s 313said to have been written a year after the death of his wife; Yuan Zhen’s are thought
to have been written several years following his wife’s death. Both earlier series
have a degree of formality and distance from the immediate grief of the death
that are not found in Mei Yaochen’s poems. The earlier poems are highly literary
and polished, mixing historical allusions to renowned women of virtue with ref-
erences to articles the deceased wife has left behind (for example, her clothes, her
sewing needles) and conventional observations about her thrift and contentment
with modest circumstances. Mei Yaochen avoids these devices. The language of his
poems is disarmingly simple, and many of his statements are surprisingly direct.
Many of his lines (3–4 in the third poem) are so straightforward that they would
be completely out of place in the earlier works. Finally, Mei Yaochen is not content
merely to express sadness at his loss. He presents a portrait of a man who cannot
accept or cope with his loss. He is writing very close to the event itself, in the initial
stages of trying to get control of his grief.
C 1 5. 3
Seeing Off Canliao 送參寥詩 (sòng cān liáo shī)A monk studies suffering and emptiness 上人學苦空 (shàng rén xué kŭ kōng)
2 The myriad worries are cold ashes in his mind. 百念已灰冷 (băi niàn yĭ huī lěng)
Blowing on a sword tip yields but a soft hum, 劍頭惟一吷 (jiàn tóu wéi yí xuè)
4 Burned millet puts forth no new grain. 焦穀無新穎 (jiāo gŭ wú xīn yĭng)
How could you chase after our kind of man 胡為逐吾輩 (hú wéi zhú wú bèi)
6 Striving to produce brilliantly patterned writing? 文字爭蔚炳 (wén zì zhēng wèi bĭng)
Your recent poems are like chips of jade 新詩如玉屑 (xīn shī rú yù xiè)
8 Their phrases fresh and surprising. 出語便清警 (chū yŭ biàn qīng jĭng)
Tuizhi said that draft-script calligraphy 退之論草書 (tuì zhī lùn căo shū)
10 Is capable of reflecting any worldly affair. 萬事未嘗屏 (wàn shì wèi cháng bĭng)
Worry, sadness, and all other disquietudes 憂愁不平氣 (yōu chóu bù píng qì)
12 May be lodged in the darting of the brush. 一寓筆所騁 (yí yù bĭ suŏ chěng)
But he wondered about the Buddhist monk 頗怪浮屠人 (pō guài fú tú rén)
14 Who looks upon his body as an empty well. 視身如丘井 (shì shēn rú qiū jĭng)
Meekly, he gives himself to the placid and plain, 頹然寄淡泊 (tuí rán jì dàn bó)
16 Who will elicit boldness and fury from him? 誰與發豪猛 (shéi yŭ fā gāo měng)
When I reconsider this I see it is incorrect. 細思乃不然 (xì sī năi bù rán)
18 True ingenuity is not a matter of delusion. 真巧非幻影 (zhēn qiăo fēi huàn yĭng)
If you want your poetic phrases to be marvelous 欲令詩語妙 (yù lìng shī yŭ miào)
20 Do not be averse to emptiness and quietude. 無厭空且靜 (wú yàn kōng qiĕ jìng)
With quietude you comprehend all movement, 靜故了羣動 (jìng gù liăo qún dòng)
22 With emptiness you take in ten thousand scenes. 空故納萬境 (kōng gù nà wàn jìng)
You observe the world as you go among men, 閱世走人間 (yuè shì zŏu rén jiān)
24 You examine yourself resting on a cloudy peak. 觀身臥雲嶺 (guān shēn wò yún lĭng)
The salty and sour mix with ordinary tastes, 鹹酸雜衆好 (xián suān zá zhòng hăo)