Toward a mist upon the water
Still I wave my hand and sob,
For the flying bird is lost in space
Beyond a desolate green mountain....
But now the long river, the far lone sail,
five lakes, gleam like spring in the sunset;
And down an island white with duckweed
Comes the quiet of communion.
Original Poem:
「饯别王十一南游」
刘长卿
望君烟水阔， 挥手泪沾巾。
飞鸟没何处？ 青山空向人。
长江一帆远， 落日五湖春。
谁见汀洲上， 相思愁白苹？
Interpretation:
This is a poem of farewell, which is a poem of bidding farewell to a friend at a banquet, focusing on the mood of parting with the friend. With the help of the scenery in front of him, the poet expresses his sadness of parting through distant looking and gazing.
The poet’s friend Wang XI has already gone away by boat, and the boat is travelling in the wide Yangtze River. The poet looks away from the smoky river and waves his hand frequently to express his feelings of farewell. Gazing into the distance, the poet’s eyes followed his friend for a long time, and the feeling of longing for him was unceasing. The poet’s true love for his friend is gathered in this long gaze alone after the farewell. A sail of the friend goes along the south of the river, gradually travelling far away, arriving at the shore of the Taihu Lake and then resting, and expresses the poet’s heart to follow his friend far away all the time to accompany him to reach his destination. In the poet’s imagination, his friend is enjoying the bright spring colours on the shores of Taihu Lake at sunset!
At the end of the poem, the poet returns from his trance to the scene of farewell. The poet stood on Tingzhou, looking at the autumn water and apple blossoms, and could not bear to leave for a long time, with infinite sadness in his heart. The scene is blended, the beginning and the end of the illumination, parting thoughts, unceasing.
Although the title of the poem is “Farewell”, there is no farewell scene in the poem, not even a word of farewell mentioned. It is a novel way of expression.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Liu Zhangqing (刘长卿-) was a native of Xian County, Hebei Province. He studied at Mt. Songshan when he was young, and later moved to Jiangxi, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 733 A.D. He also belonged to the Wang and Meng school of poetry. His poems belonged to the school of Wang and Meng, and he was most famous for his five-character poems, and was also most conceited, once thinking that he was “the Great Wall of five-character poems”, which meant that no one could surpass him.
