ChineseStudy

3. Descending Zhongnan Mountain to Hermit Hu Si's, Where We Stay and Drink | Li Bai

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English translation

At dusk I come down from the green mountain; the mountain moon follows the man home.

The whole weight is in the word “follows”. The poem never says how he spent the day on the mountain, yet his pleasure shows through this one word: only a man who does not feel tired feels the moon keeping him company.

I look back at the path I came down by; vast and dim, it lies across the green hillside.

“Looking back” is the turning of the head, and the action itself carries reluctance. “Vast and dim” writes the dusk; “lies across” carries the sense of covering. In one line there is both scenery and a man unwilling to leave.

Supporting each other, we reach the farmhouse, and the young children open the wattle gate.

“Supporting each other” shows both intimacy and the practical need to steady one another on a mountain path at night. The children opening the gate gives the place life; the wattle gate goes well with a hermit who chose a plain life.

Green bamboo leads into a quiet path; the blue-grey moss brushes the traveller's clothes.

Both lines are pure sensory detail with not one remark. The moss is the dodder that hangs from the trees like threads, and anyone walking past is brushed by it; the quiet of the place is written through the body's feeling.

The talk is happy and we have found a place to rest; good wine, and we raise our cups together.

“Finding a place to rest” is not only praise of the house, it means having met someone worth talking to. “Raise” is how the cup is lifted, and not lightly; Li Bai's way of drinking is in that word.

We sing long and loud, singing “Wind in the Pines”; the tune ends, and the stars of the river of heaven are sparse.

“Wind in the pines” is the title of an old yuefu tune, and it also answers the green hills above. Only when the song stops does he look up and find the night is deep: the time has been measured out by the singing.

I am drunk and you are glad; joyfully we both forget the calculating mind.

“Forgetting the mechanism” is a Daoist phrase for forgetting calculation and cunning. From beginning to end the poem has no grand words; it ends on one word, “forget”. What this night was worth is that the string one must keep taut at all times was let slack.

赏析 · Commentary

一路下来 · Coming Down the Mountain

前四句写一个连续的下山过程，节奏慢。「暮从碧山下」交代时间和方向，「山月随人归」让月亮跟着人走，「却顾所来径，苍苍横翠微」又回头看走过的路，只剩一片青翠。四句里人的动作只有两个：走和回头。其余是山色和月光。李白写这条路不带急，写的是愿意慢慢走完的那个人。

The first four lines describe one continuous walk downhill, and the pace is unhurried. One line sets the hour and the direction; the next has the mountain moon following the man home; then he turns to look back at the path he came down, and there is only green. Of the four lines the man performs exactly two actions — walking, and looking back. Everything else is mountain colour and moonlight. Li Bai writes this path without hurry: what he is writing is the person happy to take it slowly.

田家的门 · The Door of the Farmhouse

「相携及田家」以下四句写到家，用五个细节铺开：童子开柴门，绿竹夹着小路，青萝拂过衣襟，坐下来说话，酒端上来。没有一个字写「热情」，热情全在这些动作里。斛斯山人是隐者，李白写他的家不写陈设，只写入门那一段路——竹径和拂衣的青萝，都是要走过才碰得到的东西。

From "we arrive together at the farmhouse" the next four lines lay out the arrival in five concrete details: a child opening the brushwood gate, green bamboo closing in on the path, ivy brushing against the coat, sitting down to talk, wine set out. Not one word says "hospitality." The hospitality is entirely in the actions. Hu Si was a recluse, and Li Bai describes his house without describing its furnishings — only the stretch of path you walk to get in. The bamboo and the brushing ivy are things you meet by going through them.

松风与河星 · Pine Wind and River Stars

「长歌吟松风，曲尽河星稀」里，李白不写夜深，他写歌声唱完，抬头看见银河边的星已经稀了。时间是这样交代的——用一个动作的结束换一次抬头。这两句也把前面的热闹收住：唱完了，剩下的是星。

In "we sing long, chanting into the pine wind; when the song ends, the river stars have thinned", Li Bai does not say the night has grown late. He says the singing finished, and on looking up, the stars along the river of heaven had already thinned. Time is given this way — the end of one action exchanged for a raising of the head. The couplet also closes down everything lively that came before it. The song is over. What remains is stars.

忘机 · Forgetting Calculation

「我醉君复乐，陶然共忘机」收在两个人身上：我醉了，你也高兴，于是一起忘了机心。「忘机」出自《列子》海上之人日与鸥鸟相处、鸥鸟不惊的故事——一旦起了捉鸟的念头，鸟就不再下来。李白用它说的是两人之间不必设防，而不是说他真的忘掉了仕途。全诗从下山写到这一句，最后落在一种不必解释的相处上。

The poem closes on two people: I am drunk, you are happy, and together we forget all calculation. The phrase "forgetting calculation" refers to the story in the Liezi of the man who spent every day among the gulls, until the moment he thought of catching one, after which they would no longer come near. Li Bai uses it to describe two people who do not need to guard against each other — not to claim he has actually forgotten his career. The poem has walked from the mountainside down to this line, and it lands on a kind of company that requires no explaining.

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