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Han Yu (768–824) was a native of Menghsien in Honan province. Although he spent a good part of his life serving in the upper echelons of government, he was banished on several occasions, most famously for his suggestion that the emperor’s veneration of the Buddha’s finger-bone would shorten his life. He was also a distinguished literary figure of the T’ang and its most ardent supporter of Confucian ideals. This was written in 823 shortly before his death and was the first of two poems he wrote on the appointment of his friend Chang Chi, entitled “For Chang Shih-pa [the eighteenth son], Vice-Director of the Bureau of Waterways and Irrigation, in Early Spring.” The “streets of Heaven” and the “royal city” refer to Ch’ang-an, the residence of the Son of Heaven. Here, the angle of view condenses the faint colors on the horizon, whereby green appears in the distance but not nearby, and the myriad new willow catkins look like so much mist.

Light Rain in Early Spring

HAN YU

The streets of Heaven glisten from light rain

grass appears far off but not nearby

this is truly the best time of spring

when the sight of misty willows fills the royal city