I’m alone tonight,
And the stars hang
above the broad plain
But moon’s afloat
in this Great River:
Oh, where’s my name
among the poets?
Official rank?
‘Retired for ill-health.’
Drifting, drifting,
what am I more than
A single gull
between sky and earth?
The Story of the Peach Blossom Spring by T’ao Ch’ien (T’ao Yüan-ming)
During the T’aiyüan period of the Ch’in dynasty there was a man of Wuling who lived by fishing. He went along a stream and forgot how far he had gone. Suddenly he found himself in a forest of peach blossom extending several hundred paces along both banks, unmixed with any other sort of tree. The fragrance was lovely, and fallen petals were everywhere. The fisherman was extremely surprised, and continued onwards in the hope of reaching the limit of this forest. The forest ended at the source of the stream. There he came on a hill, and in the hill a small opening, from which there seemed to come some light. So he abandoned his boat and went through the opening. The passage was at first so narrow that a man could only just pass, but after going some fifty paces or so, he found that it widened out into a broad and bright place. On the level ground there were dignified buildings, as well as good ricefields, fine pools, mulberry trees and bamboos. There were roads and lanes criss-crossing, and the sounds of fowls and dogs could be heard. People were coming and going, busy sowing seed, and the clothes of both the men and the women looked foreign. Both the grey-haired elders and the youngest children had an air of natural happiness.
They were much amazed at the sight of the fisherman, and asked him where he had come from, to which he replied fully. They then took him back to one of their houses, put wine before him, killed a fowl, and gave him a meal. When news of this man became known in the village, they all came along to find out about him. They said of themselves that their ancestors, escaping from the troubles of the Ch’in period, had brought away their wives and children and the other inhabitants of their locality to this isolated place, and that subsequently no one had left there. This had led to their being cut off from those outside. They asked what dynasty there was now, they themselves having no knowledge of the Han dynasty, not to mention those of Wei and Ch’in. The fisherman replied fully and precisely to their questions, and they were all dumbfounded. The others all came and invited the man to their houses, and all gave him food and drink. He stayed for several days before taking his leave and departing. The people had meanwhile told him that there was no object in divulging their existence to others.
When he emerged, he regained his boat and retraced his route, noting it at every turn. When he reached the prefecture, he went to the prefect and told his tale. The prefect thereupon dispatched someone to go with him and find the route he had noted, but they lost their way and could not find it again.
Liu Tzŭ-chi of Nanyang, a man of quality, heard the tale and was eager to go off to the place himself. But before anything had been achieved, he was taken ill and died, and since then no one has looked for the stream.
This story is the inspiration for Wang Wei’s poem that opens this book.
BOCCACCIO · Mrs Rosie and the Priest
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS · As kingfishers catch fire
The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue
THOMAS DE QUINCEY · On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE · Aphorisms on Love and Hate
JOHN RUSKIN · Traffic
PU SONGLING · Wailing Ghosts
JONATHAN SWIFT · A Modest Proposal
Three Tang Dynasty Poets
WALT WHITMAN · On the Beach at Night Alone
KENKŌ · A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees
BALTASAR GRACIÁN · How to Use Your Enemies
JOHN KEATS · The Eve of St Agnes
THOMAS HARDY · Woman much missed
MARCO POLO · Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls
SUETONIUS · Caligula
APOLLONIUS OF RHODES · Jason and Medea
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON · Olalla
KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS · The Communist Manifesto
PETRONIUS · Trimalchio’s Feast
JOHANN PETER HEBEL · How a Ghastly Story Was Brought to Light by a Common or Garden Butcher’s Dog
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN · The Tinder Box
RUDYARD KIPLING · The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows
DANTE · Circles of Hell
HENRY MAYHEW · Of Street Piemen
HAFEZ · The nightingales are drunk
GEOFFREY CHAUCER · The Wife of Bath
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE · How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing
THOMAS NASHE · The Terrors of the Night
EDGAR ALLAN POE · The Tell-Tale Heart
MARY KINGSLEY · A Hippo Banquet
JANE AUSTEN · The Beautifull Cassandra
ANTON CHEKHOV · Gooseberries
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE · Well, they are gone, and here must I remain
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE · Sketchy, Doubtful, Incomplete Jottings
CHARLES DICKENS · The Great Winglebury Duel
HERMAN MELVILLE · The Maldive Shark
ELIZABETH GASKELL · The Old Nurse’s Story
NIKOLAY LESKOV · The Steel Flea
HONORÉ DE BALZAC · The Atheist’s Mass
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN · The Yellow Wall-Paper
C.P. CAVAFY · Remember, Body …
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY · The Meek One
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT · A Simple Heart
NIKOLAI GOGOL · The Nose
SAMUEL PEPYS · The Great Fire of London
HENRY JAMES · The Figure in the Carpet
WILFRED OWEN · Anthem For Doomed Youth
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART · My Dearest Father
PLATO · Socrates’ Defence
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI · Goblin Market
Sindbad the Sailor
SOPHOCLES · Antigone
RYŪNOSUKE AKUTAGAWA · The Life of a Stupid Man
LEO TOLSTOY · How Much Land Does A Man Need?
GIORGIO VASARI · Leonardo da Vinci
OSCAR WILDE · Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
SHEN FU · The Old Man of the Moon
AESOP · The Dolphins, the Whales and the Gudgeon
MATSUO BASHŌ · Lips too Chilled
EMILY BRONTË · The Night is Darkening Round Me
JOSEPH CONRAD · To-morrow
RICHARD HAKLUYT · The Voyage of Sir Francis Drake Around the Whole Globe
KATE CHOPIN · A Pair of Silk Stockings
CHARLES DARWIN · It was snowing butterflies
BROTHERS GRIMM · The Robber Bridegroom
CATULLUS · I Hate and I Love
HOMER · Circe and the Cyclops
D. H. LAWRENCE · Il Duro
KATHERINE MANSFIELD · Miss Brill
OVID · The Fall of Icarus
SAPPHO · Come Close
IVAN TURGENEV · Kasyan from the Beautiful Lands
VIRGIL · O Cruel Alexis
H. G. WELLS · A Slip under the Microscope
HERODOTUS · The Madness of Cambyses
Speaking of Siva
The Dhammapada
THE BEGINNING
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PENGUIN CLASSICS
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This selection published in Penguin Classics 2015
Wang Wei translations copyright © G. W. Robinson, 1973
Li Po and Tu Fu translations copyright © Arthur Cooper, 1973
The moral right of the translators has been asserted
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-0-141-39821-1