Discussion

(2025-03-23) Here's the discussion I wrote when I first translated this. At some point I'll revisit this one.

I have decided to refer to the book I'm using as "Guo&Lung" after the names of its compilers. The content is from one of several sources, mainly Witter Bynner, so I will be blaming him when I have thoughts about that.

Witter Bynner's version of this poem is formatted very strangely, using symbols I would usually take to mean that there are characters missing, and with three extra characters at the end. However, no other source I could find formats it like this, including multiple Chinese sites that usually mention alternate readings. He offers no reason for this typographical choice, and I can only find one other place that has the extra characters—a French site that appears to also be working off Guo&Lung. So I have gone with the version that is readily available from the Chinese sites, under the assumption that they probably know what their poetry should look like.

This poem is unusually clear with a fairly obvious literal meaning. However, as usual for Chinese, there's some unclarity about who is performing the actions. Someone is dismounting a horse, and since the friend is the one leaving, I figure he's more likely the one on a horse. And since carrying wine on a horse is a lot less easy than having wine at home, I figure that makes Wang Wei the one with the wine.

The Chinese is clear that the friend is saying he has lost hope, but is not clear about who is saying the rest. I'm fairly sure he says the rest of that couplet, but I'm not sure who is supposed to be saying the third couplet. To me it makes more sense if the friend is saying it. Witter Bynner agrees with me, but not all the Chinese commentaries do, or they aren't clear about it.

I'm not sure what's up with the white cloud line. I learned from another poem that white clouds are sort of the epitome of tourists because they drift around and never stop anywhere, but it doesn't feel like that's relevant here. Maybe it's an allusion to something I haven't read.

I translated what the friend says as "lost hope" instead of "discontent" (Bynnar) or "dissatisfied" (the machine translation of the Chinese explanations). My initial literal word-for-word gloss on that was "not ought to wish", and that feels closer to "lost hope"—my interpretation is that the friend is saying that he feels like he shouldn't have hopes and dreams anymore. But maybe it's not as severe as it sounds?

I have started also (re)translating some of the titles after realizing that I didn't really agree with sone of them. This poem is "At Parting" in Bynnar's translation.