Wangchuan Retreat House (By Wang Wei) Poem by Denis Mair

There are many ways of savoring time's passage in this poem. From line to line, attention shifts from one measuring stick of time to another. For example, you can feel the passage of time...*in the chilly appearance of the mountains, which hints at winter's approach (cold mountain) …/ in the dimming light of late afternoon (dusky green) .../*in the seasonal rising of waters (autumn waters) …/ *in the stream he hears flowing moment by moment (purling) …/ *in the aging of his body (leaning against my cane) …/ *in the sounds of insects (evening cicadas) …/ *in the position of the sun (setting) …/ *in the sun's infinitesimal movement above the horizon, like the seemingly motionless minute hand of a clock (poises) …/ *in a villager's cooking fire, because even someone's hungry stomach indicates passage of time (smoke column) …/ *in the upward movement of the smoke within the column (rises) …/ *in meeting his friend Pei Di- an incident that changes the mood of his day (I encounter) …/ *in the fact that such an encounter has happened before (again) …/ *in how his friend Pei Di's personal qualities remind him of the mad recluse Jie Yu. Apparently Pei Di and Jie Yu belong to a character type that transcends history- the two men echo each other across the ages (Jie Yu) …/ *in the wild rhythm of Pei Di's drunken song (crazily singing) …/ *in how Wang is similar to Tao Qian in his taste for a simple life, which prompts Wang to call his cottage the House of "Five Willows." He is joined across the ages with Tao Qian by their kindred feelings…/ *we also sense time's passage in shifts of attention from backdrop to foreground. At first we have an unchanging auditory foreground with a changing visual field (purling water with darkening hills) . At the end there is a changing auditory foreground with a steady visual field (crazy singing before the Five Willows) . The shifting foci within the poet's sensorium belong to the rich texture of duration…./ *Another facet of time in this poem comes from our biographical knowledge of the poet. Wang Wei was a lifelong bachelor who led a simple life, alternating his days between officialdom and his stays at the Wangchuan Retreat House. The poem's title indicates that is he is now in a phase of seclusion.