1 live poem · Mandarin Chinese
Among the towering figures of China’s Golden Age of poetry, Wang Wei stands apart—not as a rival to Li Bai’s celestial intoxication or Du Fu’s earthly anguish, but as a quiet, meditative counterpoint. He is the poet of the empty mountain, the painter of the silent stream, the musician who heard the cosmic resonance in a single falling blossom. To read Wang Wei is to step into a landscape where human presence is a fle…
“Now I am sitting alone. I listen, but cannot hear my grooms and servants move or speak. I think much of old days: how hand in hand, composing poems as we went, we walked down twisting paths to the banks of clear streams.”
Neighbourhood:
Ancient & Classical Poets, Classical & Ancient Poets, Classical Chinese Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Nature Poets
Emotional landscape: Peace, Wonder, Spirituality
1 live poem · Mandarin Chinese
Li Bai, also known as Li Bo, was born in 701 and died in 762, during the high and later Tang dynasty, the period most often celebrated as the great classical age of Chinese poetry. Few literary figures have become so inseparable from the imaginative idea of poetry itself. In China he is commonly called the “Immortal Poet,” and the phrase is more than a compliment to technical skill. It conveys the sense that his vers…
“Floating life is like a dream; how much joy can one have?”
Neighbourhood:
Classical & Ancient Poets, Classical Chinese Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Nature Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Spirituality