Week 8: TIDE (REGAIN)

On a Boat, Awake at Night

Su Tung-p'o

Faint wind rustles reeds and cattails;
I open the hatch, expecting rain–moon floods the lake.
Boatmen and water birds dream the same dream;
a big fish splashes off like a frightened fox.
It’s late–men and creatures forget each other
while my shadow and I amuse ourselves alone.
Dark tides creep over the flats–I pity the cold mud-worms;
the setting moon, caught in a willow, lights a dangling spider.
Life passes swiftly, hedged by sorrow;
how long before you’ve lost it–a scene like this?
Cocks crow, bells ring, a hundred birds scatter;
drums pound from the bow, shout answers shout.

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Su Tung-p'o (1037-1101), also known as Su Shi, was a Song Dynasty writer, poet, painter, calligrapher,  and statesman... I've always liked this particular poem, but it was today (thinking about Robin's painting) that I understood it in a new way...
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The painting is Night Dark (Yangshuo)--something I made after a trip to China in the fall of 2003.  I was sitting in a river cafe, late at night--the open windows looked out over the Li Jiang--but in the darkness, all you could hear was the sound of the water... Which meant that all the past it contained--the river, the setting, China itself--became visible in a new way...  I found it again this morning, by chance, searching under river...