c. 710–782
Qian Qi
錢起
Explore Qian Qi's poetry through a departing monk, a river spirit's music, a returning traveler, and the landscapes that remain after people leave.
Qian Qi’s poems in this collection often let a presence become distant without disappearing from attention. A light remains vivid across an imagined ocean; music ends while mountains remain; a journey invites thought about the place to which someone returns. Follow that change from presence to distance before deciding what the landscape means.
A farewell across the sea
Sending a Monk Back to Japan imagines a journey through Buddhist language. The boat carries both the departing traveler and a spiritual meaning; water, moon, and chanting extend the poem beyond a simple itinerary. Its final lamp stays bright in the speaker’s sight across a distance that cannot be covered by ordinary vision.
This is an English reading of a Chinese farewell addressed to a monk returning to Japan. Its subject does not make it a Japanese-language translation. The notes distinguish the poem’s imagined voyage from an eyewitness report of the entire crossing.
Listening until the song is over
The Xiang Spirit Plays the Se is an examination poem about supernatural music. Its twelve five-character lines use the extended regulated form known as 排律, explained on the regulated verse page. The spirit’s performance reaches listeners, plants, flowing water, and wind before the final scene becomes quiet.
The ending is powerful because its green peaks are visible after the musician can no longer be seen. Compare the relation between sound and landscape on the music shelf, especially Deer Enclosure, where a human voice is heard without a person coming into view.
Returning and recognizing
Late Spring: Returning to My Cottage asks what has changed during an absence and what still welcomes the traveler. Its source also records attribution to Liu Changqing; the edition note keeps that uncertainty visible instead of counting two author attributions as two works. Returning Geese offers a different journey to compare.
The approximate dates and biographical reference can be followed through the Wikisource author record. Chinese textual witnesses are linked on the individual poem pages. Our English translations and explanatory prose are written for this collection.
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