Poems for the Autumn Equinox

Well, I've been away for a while.  Sorry about that.  There have been a few things I've wanted to write about in the meantime,  but the motivation just hasn't been there.  I've been busy.  Now, with the change of seasons, changes are at work in my life as well.  I'm back in school, now committed to finishing my M.A. in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute.  And I'm teaching Taijiquan, too, in my native La Jolla.  I am moving into new roles and new communities, and it feels good.

I wanted to celebrate the Equinox by sharing a couple of Chinese poems.  The first is an ancient one, from the Shih Ching or Book of Odes, and is supposed to have been written by Emperor Wu of the Han.  This translation is by Kenneth Rexroth.

Autumn Wind

The autumn wind blows white clouds
About the sky.  Grass turns brown.
Leaves fall.  Wild geese fly south.
The last flowers bloom, orchids
And chrysanthemums with their
Bitter perfume.  I dream of
That beautiful face I can
Never forget.  I go for
A trip on the river.  The barge
Rides the current and dips with
The white capped waves.  They play flutes
And drums, and the rowers sing.
I am happy for a moment
And then the old sorrow comes back.
I was young only a little while,
And now I am growing old.

The second poem is by the T'ang dynasty poet Po Chu-i, in an excellent translation by David Hinton.

Autumn Thoughts, Sent Far Away


We share all these disappointments of failing
autumn a thousand miles apart.  This is where


autumn wind easily plunders courtyard trees,
but the sorrows of distance never scatter away.


Swallow shadows shake out homeward wings.
Orchid scents thin, drifting from old thickets.


These lovely seasons and fragrant years falling
lonely away--we share such emptiness here.

Though separated by history, the two poets share in the same literary tradition, and also the same world of nature, image, impermanence, and feeling.  Both minds are moved by the autumn winds, the same wind that carries wild geese and swallows on their migratory journeys.  Both poets mention the smell of orchids, and share in the same mood of loneliness, melancholy, and, especially, nostalgia.

Autumn is my favorite season, and it always brings me feelings of balance and equanimity--but with that deep sense of calm come the same feelings Emperor Wu and Po Chu-i express in their poems.  It reminds me of a few lines of Mary Oliver:

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

The translations of the Chinese poems in this post are from The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry.  The quotation from Mary Oliver is from her poem "Wild Geese," in her New and Selected Poems.