My eyes wander over the view of hills and seas,
At a single glance I survey the whole Universe.
He will never be happy, whom such pleasures fail to please!
T’ao Ch’ien (Chinese poet, 365-427)
I chose these lines because (oh so suddenly) it was October 1st, the sun was shining, the trees were starting to shed their russet and gold – and I was alone, thinking about getting older. It will be my 69th birthday on October 8th and so I am now in the Autumn of my life. I can’t see it as Winter – not yet. Not yet.
Like this Chinese poet, writing so long ago, I find consolation in books and in nature. And also in family and friends, of course; not to mention art, and music, and dogs….But when the Autumn sun is gilding the trees and you have a new book to begin, you realise how important are such things. I find great consolation for the loss in youth in the very real gains of contemplation. I love to look and to read.
T’ao Ch’ien was something of a recluse and in this poem he describes his cottage, around which ‘thick-leaved branches sway.’ He says that once he has done his ploughing and sown his seeds in the garden, ‘Again I have time to sit and read my books.’
He seems to tell us that sometimes his friends don’t bother to visit, but it doesn’t bother him very much. (I confess I’m rather like that; I do love my own company.) The poet finds consolation in simple things:
In high spirits I pour out my spring wine
And pluck the lettuce growing in my garden.
He doesn’t mind the rain, but picks up a book and loses himself in its pages. His ‘view’ is both the pictures in the book, and the landscape outside. So even when we cannot travel physically we can travel within our imaginations. The inner and the outer worlds become one
How wonderful is that thought! And of course it is true that the person who simply cannot open his or her mind, heart and soul to such beauty will never be happy. The message is one that Wordworth understood too – that ‘Getting and spending we lay waste our powers’ but Nature is a source of spiritual uplift. If you feel unhappy, just pick up an leaf – and look, look, look. Then look some more. Then think that anybody given such beauty for free is blessed – no matter who they are, or what else is going on in life.