A White Turtle Under A Waterfall¹

Editorial Introduction. — This section is devoted to poetry involving turtles, representing either reprinted previously published or new unpublished material. We encourage our readers to submit poetry or songs for consideration, either their own material or work by other authors. Poems may be submitted to Anders G.J. Rhodin at Chelonian Research Foundation, E-mail: RhodinCRF@aol.com.

Our desire is to share with our readers the beauty and wonder of turtles as expressed through the art of the poem or song. In the sense that the relationship between man and turtles is multifaceted, so too is turtle poetry. The poems we publish here will reflect that complexity, from poems of pure admiration for the creatures themselves to others reflecting the utilization of turtles and their products. Some poems will reflect man's use of the turtle for sustenance, others will stress man's need to preserve and protect turtles. Some will deal with our emotional interactions with turtles, others will treat turtles light-heartedly or with seeming disrespect, but all will hopefully help us to better understand both the human and the chelonian condition and remind us that the turtle holds a sacred place in all our hearts.

[701–761 AD]

The waterfall on South Mountain hits the rocks,

tosses back its foam with terrifying thunder,

blotting out even face-to-face talk.

Collapsing water and bouncing foam soak blue moss,

old moss so thick

it drowns the spring grass.

Animals are hushed.

Birds fly but don't sing

yet a white turtle plays on the pool's sand floor

under riotous spray,

sliding about with the torrents.

The people of the land are benevolent.

No angling or net fishing.

The white turtle lives out its life, naturally.

Editorial Comment. — Wang Wei [701–761 A.D.] was a prominent Chinese poet, musician, painter, and statesman in the Tang Dynasty of the 8th century. He was one of the most famous men of arts and letters of his time, yet was also exiled from time to time as his political fortunes vacillated. He lived in southern Shaanxi Province in the Qinling Mountains, where he painted and wrote poetry, often about nature, especially mountains and hill streams. It has been said that the quality of Wang Wei's poems can be summed up as holding a painting within them and, in observing his paintings, that within the painting there is poetry. This poem paints a vivid image of a thundering waterfall and its spray-soaked mossy stones and banks with turbulent sandy pool below, in which a white turtle swims playfully along the bottom. Of the three freshwater turtle species currently known to inhabit hill streams in southern Shaanxi (Cuora pani, Mauremys reevesii, and Pelodiscus sinensis), this one is probably meant to be the last, a Chinese softshell turtle, that sometimes occurs as a light-colored albino variant. The sentiments expressed about the people of the land being benevolent and not hunting or harming the turtle, but letting it live out its life naturally, apparently reflect not only Wang Wei's views on respect for the turtle itself but also a personal view about allowing retired statesmen and exiled officials to live out their lives naturally. Let us hope that today's people of the land are as benevolent as their predecessors and that they too allow the turtles in their hill streams and everywhere to live out their lives naturally. It is almost too late for many of them, because most of China's turtles are now virtually extinct in the wild, with only tiny remnant populations clinging to rapidly shrinking habitats and being decimated by overwhelming exploitation. Perhaps Wang Wei's time-honored poetry can help remind today's people of the land, whether in China or anywhere else in the world, that their heritage of ancient turtles also should be allowed to live out their lives naturally.