Ouyang Xiu was a scholar, poet, writer, intellectual and statesman during the early part of the Song Dynasty. Coming to my attention as a result of a recent China History Podcast (thanks Laszlo), I decided to look for works of his that might be extant in English. I came across the following poem.

Scraps of cloud in rosy dusk- West Lake is good.
Flowers on the bank, duckweed on sand,
A hundred acres of peaceful ripples,
On the overgrown bank, no man- just the stroke of a boat.

South-west, across the moon, scattered clouds are drifting.
Cool rises at the terrace rail,
Lotus flowers' scent is clear,
Wind from the water's face makes the wine face sober.

In the West we tend to think that progress is somehow a constant, and linear, and that all received wisdom has passed down from the Greeks through the Romans through the Renaissance and so forth. A simple comparison of Song Dynasty China with any equivalent state in Europe at that time proves what nonsense this is.

Wind from the water's face makes the wine face sober is such a great piece of writing, a reminder of the human amidst the natural world. The pastoral scene, perfectly balanced, placid and idyllic, brings the poet to his senses.