102. Autumn Evening in the Mountains | Wang Wei
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
空山新雨后，天气晚来秋。
English translation
Empty hills, just after rain; evening brings the air of autumn.
Empty hills does not mean nothing is there, but that no one is. After fresh rain, evening turns cool, and autumn arrives just so.
Original Chinese text
明月松间照，清泉石上流。
English translation
Bright moon shines among the pines; clear spring flows over the stones.
Both are famous lines. The first writes the stillness of light, the second the motion of water — each giving rise to the other, with sound and color both present.
Original Chinese text
竹喧归浣女，莲动下渔舟。
English translation
Bamboo rustles — the washerwomen return; lotuses stir — a fishing boat comes down.
Both rustles and stir give the sign first and the cause after — hear it, see it, and only then know it is people. This order lets the scene speak for itself.
Original Chinese text
随意春芳歇，王孙自可留。
English translation
Let the spring fragrance fade as it will; one such as I may stay on here.
The phrase 'Wang Sun'—a noble one, here the poet himself—comes from the Chu elegy 'Return, O prince! In the hills you cannot stay long'; here it is used in reverse: the hills are exactly where one may stay long. The closing couplet states a position, grounding the poem's ease in a choice.
赏析 · Commentary
「空山」两个字的意思 · What the Words Empty Hills Mean
「空山」在王维诗里反复出现，如「空山不见人」「夜静春山空」。这个「空」不是荒芜，是清静无人。山中明明有竹、有莲、有浣女、有渔舟，为什么说空？因为这里没有功名利禄的往来，没有世俗的应酬。王维是信佛的人，「空」在他的诗里常带一点禅意——不是没有，是不执着于有。理解这一点，才能读出这首诗的安静从何而来。
Empty hills recurs in Wang Wei's poems, as in empty hills, no one in sight and the spring hills empty in the still night. The emptiness is not desolation but quiet with no one about. The hills plainly have bamboo, lotus, washerwomen, and boats, so why empty? Because there are none of the dealings of rank and gain, none of the world's courtesies. Wang Wei was a Buddhist, and emptiness in his poems often carries a note of Chan — not that nothing is there, but that one does not cling to its being there. This is where the poem's quiet comes from.
「竹喧」「莲动」的写法高明在哪 · What Is Fine About Bamboo Rustles and Lotuses Stir
这两句的感官顺序是反的：先听见竹林的声响，才推断出是浣女归来；先看见莲叶摇动，才知道有渔舟下来。诗人没有先说「浣女归」再补「竹喧」，而是让现象先出现，原因后到。这样写，读者和诗人站在同一个位置，一起从迹象推断。唐诗写景常用这一手，王维尤其拿手——他不解释，只呈现，让读者自己把因果关系接上。
The sensory order in these lines is reversed: first the sound in the bamboo, then the inference that washerwomen are returning; first the lotuses moving, then the knowledge that a boat is coming down. The poet does not say the washerwomen return and then add the rustling; he lets the sign appear first and the cause follow. So written, reader and poet stand in the same place, inferring together from the evidence. Tang landscape writing often uses this, and Wang Wei above all: he does not explain, only presents, and the reader completes the cause.
末联反用《楚辞》的分量 · The Weight of Reversing the Chu Elegy
《楚辞·招隐士》说「王孙兮归来，山中兮不可久留」，劝人离开山林回到人间。王维把这句话反过来：山中自可久留。这一反用不只是文字游戏，是立场的表态——他选择留在山中，放弃「春芳」所代表的繁华。放在全诗末尾，前面所有的清幽景色都成了这个选择的理由。
The Chu elegy Summons to a Recluse says come home, noble visitor; one cannot stay long in the hills, urging a man to leave the woods for the world of men. Wang Wei reverses it: here in the hills one may stay. The reversal is no wordplay but a declaration of stance — he chooses to remain, giving up the splendor that spring fragrance stands for. Placed at the end, all the clear, quiet scenery before it becomes the reason for the choice.