A wind, bringing willow-cotton, sweetens the shop,
And a girl from Wu, pouring wine, urges me to share it
With my comrades of the city who are here to see me off;
And as each of them drains his cup, I say to him in parting,
Oh, go and ask this river running to the east
If it can travel farther than a friend's love!
Original Poem:
「金陵酒肆留别」
李白
风吹柳花满店香，吴姬压酒劝客尝。
金陵子弟来相送，欲行不行各尽觞。
请君试问东流水，别意与之谁短长？
Interpretation:
This is a poem of farewell.
The poet begins by painting an enchanting picture of spring light and spring colours. The poet is about to leave Jinling at the time of spring blossoming and sits alone in a small hotel in a water village in the south of the Yangtze River, drinking wine. Flying willow flakes float all over the small shop. The maid of the hotel pressed out new wine to persuade the guests, and the fragrance of wine and the fragrance of flowers blowing in the wind merged into one. In this situation, the poet’s feelings of farewell, not feel surging to the heart.
Jinling’s young friends to see off the poet, the sender earnestly persuade the wine, can not bear to leave, but just when the poet is in the prime of life and did not indulge in the sentiment of parting, he touched on the scene, on the spot to take the example, wrote fondly, please ask this eastward-flowing river, parting with it compared to who is shorter and who is longer? The poet is not only like asking the friends who are sending off, but also like asking the readers, which is more like a self-expression of the emotion in the middle and in the words.
Although this poem is only a short six lines, it is full of emotion and sound writing, which puts abstract emotion in concrete images, and makes the expression of emotion vivid and palpable through the linkage of emotion and emotionlessness, and the fusion of abstraction and concreteness. The language is fresh and fluent, with a simple folk song flavour, overflowing with the rich atmosphere of farm life.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Li Bai (李白), 701 ~ 762 A.D., whose ancestral home was in Gansu, was preceded by Li Guang, a general of the Han Dynasty. Tang poetry is one of the brightest constellations in the history of Chinese literature, and one of the brightest stars is Li Bai.
