Wistful, away from my friends and kin,
Through mist and fog I float and float
With the sail that bears me toward Loyang.
In Yangzhou trees linger bell-notes of evening,
Marking the day and the place of our parting…
When shall we meet again and where?
…Destiny is a boat on the waves,
Borne to and fro, beyond our will.
Original Poem:
「滁州西涧」
韦应物
独怜幽草涧边生， 上有黄鹂深树鸣。
春潮带雨晚来急， 野渡无人舟自横。
Interpretation:
This is a famous landscape poem written by the poet in 781 A.D. during his term as the assassin of Chuzhou, when he traveled in spring to the stream between two mountains in the countryside west of the city of Chuzhou. The poet writes about the late spring tour of the western stream to enjoy the scenery and the evening rain crossing seen, calm mind and sad feelings in the poem to get a natural flow.
In the first line, the poet does not write about the peach and willow green in spring, but only likes this quiet and lively scenery, which reveals the poet’s desire for a clean character and a life of seclusion. The second line, the poet from the visual and auditory aspects to sketch, deep in the dense trees, oriole singing a pleasant song.
The third and fourth lines are about what one sees and hears in the rain. Spring tide with rain, the night rush up; ferry no one of the boat, alone across the river. Evening tide with spring rain, the water is more rapid, if in the main road, it is when the ferry is used; and suburban ferry, pedestrians are not many, at this moment even more no one, the boatman also went home, the empty ferry only leisurely indifference.
Poet in the career, worried about the political ills of the Tang Dynasty, sick people living in poverty, have the will to reform but powerless, want to go back to hiding but can not, often by the service, retreat troubled, so not to go forward and not backward, let nature take its course. Poet thinking of going back to seclusion, their inaction, just like the water when the boat across the wild. With feelings into the scene, the scene into the feelings, this poem makes the ancient readers step into the picture.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Wei Yingwu (韦应物), circa 737 – 786, was a native of Chang’an, Beijing. His poems were collected in the Wei Suzhou Collection, which included poems concerned with the plight of the people, expressions of disobedience to the times and indignation against the world, and descriptions of idyllic landscapes, etc., of which the ones describing idyllic landscapes are the most famous, and have been sung by posterity in particular.
