SU DONGPO (SU SHI) (1036-1011)

Su Shi was born in Sichuan province in Meishan to an illustrious family of officials and distinguished scholars. He, his brother and his father were considered to be among the finest prose masters of both the Tang and Song dynasties and were known as the Three Su's. He took the Imperial Exam in 1057 and was noticed by the powerful tastemaker, politician, poet, and chief examiner Ouyang Xiu, who became his patron. Like Ouyang, Su Shi was a renaissance man, who in addition to a political career was an innovator and master of poetry, prose, calligraphy, and painting. He was among the founders of the important Southern Song style of painting. He felt that poems and paintings should be spontaneous as running water, yet rooted in an objective rendering of emotions in the world. Around 2400 of his poems in the shi form survive, along with 350 ci form poems. These latter are poems derived from song forms, and like Ouyang, Su was important in expanding this genre's use and possibilities. His political career, like that of his patron, was vicissitudinous, including demotions, twelve periods of exile, and even three months in prison (primarily because of his opposition to the powerful reformer Wang Anshi. During an exile in Huangzhou he began calling himself Su Dongpo (Eastern Slope), which was the name of his farm. His poems are informed by a knowledge of Daoism and Chan (Zen) Buddhism, and like that earlier mystical farmer-poet, Tao Qian, he was contented on his farm, retired from the political world. His personality shines clearly from his poems; he was a personal poet, who reported the pain of his separations in exile, the death of his baby son, his joy in a simple walk in the countryside, and the pleasures of a good cup of wine. He is known for the exuberance he brings to writing, and is even credited with being the founder of a school of heroic abandonment in writing. The poem AInscription for Gold Mountain Temple,@ included here, belongs to a tradition of Chinese concrete poetry (word games and shaped poems), which is virtually unknown in the West. In Chinese, this beautiful poem can be read forwards and backwards, produce two descriptions of the Temple: from night to day, and from day to night. In the interest of giving a readable version, we have done two English translations: from beginning to end, and from end to beginning, changing prepositions, articles, and verb forms to make each poem natural, yet retaining the order of the basic elements. The poem is attributed to Su Shi in the Song Dynasty compilation of poetry anecdotes Jade Splinters, but its author is not entirely certain.
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Inscription for Gold Mountain Temple (I)

Tides follow hidden waves. The snow mountain tilts.
Distant fishing boats are hooking the moonlight.
A bridge faces the temple gate. The pine path is narrow.
By the doorsill is the fountain's eye where stone ripples transparently.

Far, far green treesCthe river sky is dawning.
Cloudy, cloudy scarlet afterglow. The sea is sun bright.
View of the distance: four horizons of clouds join the water.
Blue peaks are a thousand dots. A few weightless gulls.

        ---Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping

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Inscription for Gold Mountain Temple (II)

Gulls are weightless, a few dots. A thousand peaks are blue.
Water joins the clouds' edges in four distant views.
Bright day. Sea glows with scarlet clouds on clouds.
Dawning sky and river trees are green, and far, far.

Transparent ripples from the stone eye: fountain by the doorsill.
A narrow path and pine gate where the temple faces the bridge.
A bright moon hooks boats. Fishing waters are distant.
A tilted mountain is a snow wave, secretly following tides.

        ---Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping

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Cloud-Burst at Youmei Hall

Thunder snaps beneath the travelers' feet.
No way to dispel stubborn clouds that drown our seats.
Outside, a black gale blows sea into sky.
A flying rainstorm crosses the River Zhe.
The riverwater brims convex like a full gold goblet,
The water is a drum a thousand raindrops beat,
waking the Exiled Immortal with a splash in his face
Ca downpour of jade from a mermaid's cave.

        ---Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping

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Note: 8th line, Master Zan was a well-known monk in the Tang Dynasty.