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Cooling Off by Wang Wei (699? - 761) Timeline English version by Willis Barnstone Original Language Chinese Buddhist Taoist 8th Century Clear waters drift through the immensity of a tall forest. In front of me a huge river mouth receives the long wind. Deep ripples hold white sand and white fish swimming as in a void. I sprawl on a big rock, billows nourishing my humble body. I gargle with water and wash my feet. A fisherman pauses out on the surf. So many fish long for bait. I look only to the east with its lotus leaves.     -- from To Touch the Sky: Poems of Mystical, Spiritual & Metaphysical Light, Translated by Willis Barnstone Amazon.com   / Photo by mckaysavage /	Themes   East   Lotus   Water   Womb   Recommended Books An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911, Translated by Stephen Owen The Poetry of Zen: (Shambhala Library), Edited by Sam Hamill / Edited by J. P. Seaton Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry, Edited by Wu-chi Liu / Edited by Irving Yucheng Lo Three Chinese Poets: Translations of Poems by Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu, Translated by Vikram Seth To Touch the Sky: Poems of Mystical, Spiritual & Metaphysical Light, Translated by Willis Barnstone
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

One way to understand this poem is to read the "clear waters" as the mind when it is still and pure. The mind becomes free from the silt of projections, it becomes clear, empty, the "void" in which the fish swim.

The sand and the fish are white, hinting at the golden-white radiance often perceived in meditative ecstasy.

He "gargles" with water, suggesting the sense of drinking or swallowing a pure substance -- the celestial drink. And he washes his feet, the foundation of awareness, in the purity of this "water."

"So many fish long for bait." The fish, here, are the remnants of darting thoughts. They long for "bait," to be fed with constant attention, the busyness of the discursive mind. But the "fisherman," the meditator, simply pauses, watching them without feeding them.

Wang Wei looks to the east, the direction of the rising sun and spiritual illumination, where the "lotus leaves" of the awakened consciousness open.

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.