From the temple, deep in its tender bamboos,
Comes the low sound of an evening bell,
While the hat of a pilgrim carries the sunset
Farther and farther down the green mountain.
Original Poem:
「送灵澈上人」
刘长卿
苍苍竹林寺，杳杳钟声晚。
荷笠带斜阳，青山独归远。
Interpretation:
This poem is about the poet's mood when sending Ling Che back to the Bamboo Grove Temple in the evening. It is well conceived and is a famous piece of landscape poetry in the Middle Tang Dynasty.
In the first two lines, the sound of the chiming bell is heard far away from the Bamboo Grove Temple, which is in the middle of the pale mountains and forests.
I want to look at the place where Ling Che returns to his home in the pale mountains and forests, and from afar comes the sound of the temple's chiming bell, pointing out that the time is already dusk, as if urging Ling Che to return to the mountains.
In the last two lines, he wears a hat and is clad in the afterglow of the slanting sun as he walks alone toward the green mountains, gradually moving away.
The scene of Ling Che's farewell and return is written. Ling Che is wearing a hat and the setting sun, walking alone toward the green mountain, getting farther and farther away. The poet stood to see Ling Che off, reluctant to part with him. It shows the poet's deep affection for Ling Che, as well as Ling Che's quiet demeanor as he returns to the mountain.
The whole poem is like a very beautiful picture, the theme of the poem is to support and reveal the poet's feelings of being unrecognized, disillusioned and indifferent, thus constituting a kind of leisurely and elegant mood.
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.
