"Mountain Residence in Autumn Twilight" expresses the poet's attachment to the mountains, rivers and countryside and his contentment with his seclusion life. It uses natural beauty to express the beauty of personality and society.
After the new rain in the empty mountains, the weather comes late in autumn.
The bright moon shines among the pines, and the clear spring rocks flow upward.
The bamboo noise returns to Huan Nu, and the lotus moves off the fishing boat.
Let the spring fragrance rest at will, and the kings and grandsons can stay.
Translation: The empty mountains are bathed in a new rain, and the fall of night makes people feel that it is early autumn. The bright moon sheds clear light from the gaps in the pines, and clear spring water flows on the rocks. The noisy sound in the bamboo forest is thought to be the return of the washer girl, and the swaying of the lotus leaves is thought to be the light boat wandering up and down. The fragrance of spring may as well be allowed to fade away, but the kings and grandsons of the mountains in autumn can stay for a long time.
Creative background
This poem depicts the scene of a mountain village in the late autumn after the rain. It was when Wang Wei lived in seclusion at Wangchuan Villa at the foot of Zhongnan Mountain. It is already the late stage of "I am quite good at Taoism in my middle age, and my family is in the southern border of Nanshan in my late years" ("Zhongnan Farewell").
In the twenty-fourth year of Kaiyuan (736), Zhang Jiuling, the last enlightened prime minister in the Xuanzong period of the Tang Dynasty, was excluded and dismissed from office by Li Linfu and others. The government became increasingly gloomy. Wang Wei's political enthusiasm cooled down and he had a negative attitude towards politics. . After the twenty-eighth year of Kaiyuan (740), he built a villa in Zhongnan Mountain and lived a semi-official and semi-hidden life. This poem was written during this period.