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…
“We must wait for Spring to come: till the grasses sprout and the trees bloom. Then wandering together in the spring hills we shall see the trout leap lightly from the stream, the white gulls stretch their wings, the dew fall on the green moss.”
Neighbourhood:
Ancient & Classical Poets, Classical & Ancient Poets, Classical Chinese Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Nature Poets
Emotional landscape: Peace, Wonder, Spirituality
Abu Nuwas, whose full name was al-Hasan ibn Hani al-Hakami and whose life is generally dated from about 756 to about 814, occupies a singular position in the history of Arabic poetry. Few poets have been so admired for verbal brilliance, so censured for moral provocation, so repeatedly transformed into legend, and so difficult to confine within a single image. He is remembered above all as the great poet of wine, urb…
“Do not judge a man by his outer garments, but by the subtlety of his mind and speech.”
Neighbourhood:
Ancient & Classical Poets, Arabic Poets, Classical & Ancient Poets, Love Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Persian Mystic Poets
Emotional landscape: Sensuality, Joy, Longing
