Bound home to Mount Song | The limpid river, past its bushes

by Wang Wei (701 - 761)

Translation by Witter Bynner (1881 - 1968)

歸嵩山作

Language: Chinese (中文)

清川帶長薄， 
車馬去閑閑。
流水如有意， 
暮禽相與還。
荒城臨古渡， 
落日滿秋山。
迢遞嵩高下， 
歸來且閉關。

Text Authorship:

by Wang Wei (701 - 761), "歸嵩山作" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

[ None yet in the database ]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in English, a translation by Witter Bynner (1881 - 1968) , "Bound home to Mount Song", appears in The Jade Mountain, first published 1929 ; composed by John Beckwith.
Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Borys Mykolayovych Lyatoshynsky.
Also set in Ukrainian (Українська), a translation by S. Balatsky ; composed by Borys Mykolayovych Lyatoshynsky.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-01-22
Line count: 8
Word count: 8

The limpid river, past its bushes

Language: English after the Chinese (中文)

The limpid river, past its bushes
Running slowly as my chariot,
Becomes a fellow voyager
Returning home with the evening birds.
A ruined city-wall overtops an old ferry,
Autumn sunset floods the peaks.
...Far away, beside Mount Song,
I shall close my door and be at peace.

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Text Authorship:

by Witter Bynner (1881 - 1968), "Bound home to Mount Song", appears in The Jade Mountain, first published 1929 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Chinese (中文) by Wang Wei (701 - 761), "歸嵩山作"
- Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by John Beckwith (1927 - 2022), "The limpid river", 1947 [ high voice and piano ], from Five Lyrics of the T'ang Dynasty, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-01-22
Line count: 8
Word count: 47