Member Poem

Sending Off Ling Che

 
Liu Changqing (709-785)
 
 
A temple in the vast green bamboo grove
Resounds its bell within the depth and dusk;
The setting sun slopes down your bamboo hat,
As going back from these green hills, you must.
 
 

Chinese   送靈澈 劉長卿   蒼蒼竹林寺 杳杳鐘聲晚 荷笠帶斜陽 青山獨歸遠

Pronunciation   Sòng Líng Chè Liú Chángqīng   Cāng cāng zhú lín sì Yǎo yǎo zhōng shēng wǎn Hé lì dài xié yáng Qīng shān dú guī yuǎn

 
 
Transliteration and Notes
 
Sending-off Ling Che
 
Green green bamboo grove temple
Deep deep bell sounds evening
Lotus bamboo-hat carries setting sun
Green mountain alone return remote
 
     “Green green” means “ash gray” or “vast and hazy.” “Deep deep” means “deep and somber.” “Green mountain” or “green hills” symbolizes the good life. This is a spiritual extolling the beauty and solitude of a quiet life in the woods. Through the depth of a bamboo forest, he and his visitor hear the temple’s evening bell ring. As his guest returns, he watches him walk away while the setting sun slopes down the lines of his friend’s bamboo hat.
     Liu Changqing was a poet and politician during the Tang Dynasty. Eleven of his poems were included in the 300 Tang Poems anthology.