Autumn sound

This song is dedicated to one of his friends who, deeply inspired by Taoism, secretly left for the mountains to master the technics of becoming a hermit. Heading off on a gentle stroll in the middle of an autumn chill, his low-pitched voice automatically starts to hum, thinking his friend may still be tossing and turning in bed. Hearing the sound of a pinecone falling from the tree to break the silence of the uninhabited mountains, the friend must be thinking of the author. If it were not for such a deep level of friendship, all these imaginary scenes could not have been translated into literary lines. This all comes down to their mutual trust, yearnings and shared feelings that bind them together.

As such, the author may not want to get in the friend’s way of staying silent, peaceful, and calm deep in the mountains. As if the friend, Qui Dan, had long expected to hear from the author, Wei Yingwu, he replies, “Hearing the sound of dew sitting on a royal foxglove leaf. Seeing cassia-bark trees blossoming in a crisp west breeze. Learning hermit technics, I play the pipe under the moon that hangs in the sky above the mountains.” The gentle voices of the two best friends are the container of the cleanness and depth of autumn. Indeed, their friendship only gets deeper in the sounds of autumn, as described in the sound of a pinecone falling from the tree in the tranquil mountains and droplets of dew arriving on a royal foxglove leaf.

Critics assess that Wei Yingwu’s works of poetry, which talk of natural sceneries, are reminiscent of the simplicity of Tao Yuanming’s language and Wang Wei’s clean and calm lines. Regarding his poetry, some even say metaphorically, “His lines make you feel comfortable as if you took a break sitting on the rock to sip spring water after gathering herbs deep in the mountains and felt so relaxed that you could even forget to go back home.”