Friend, I have watched you down the mountain
Till now in the dark I close my thatch door....
Grasses return again green in the spring,
But O my Prince of Friends, do you?
Original Poem:
「山中送别」
王维
山中相送罢， 日暮掩柴扉。
春草明年绿， 王孙归不归。
Interpretation:
This is a famous poem of farewell. Unlike other farewell poems, it does not depict the scene of leaving the pavilion, looking at each other hand in hand, and reluctant to part with each other; instead, it has chosen an original detail after parting with a friend.
In the first two lines, the author sends off his friend in the mountains and closes the wood door as the sun sets in the west.
After seeing off his friend, the writer himself slowly returns to his residence. It was nearly twilight when the poet returned home and gently closed the wood door. These two lines are as plain as the vernacular, but the seemingly plain words imply surging feelings. People who have had the experience of farewell know that the farewell of the most dismal moment, not to leave the person to move, watching the departure of the person gradually away from the moment, but often is to send farewell to the moment of return, feeling away from the person seems to be still around, but in fact, “he” is already far away, that kind of loneliness and loss, far better than the farewell of the sadness that is.
The last two lines: When the grass is green again next year, friends, can you return?
These two lines are about the poet’s psychological activities when he returned from the farewell. When he returned home, he couldn’t help but think, when the grass is green in spring next year, will your friend return? This sentence should have been asked on the occasion of farewell, but did not ask, friends have gone away, this sentence again floats to the heart, there is a point of desire to talk about the feelings. These two lines are mainly used to express the heart, expressing the deep love between friends.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Wang Wei (王维), 701-761 A.D., was a native of Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. Wang Wei was a poet of landscape and idylls. His poems of landscape and idylls, with far-reaching images and mysterious meanings, were widely loved by readers in later generations, but Wang Wei never really became a man of landscape and idylls.
