ChineseStudy

16. Climbing Lan Mountain in Autumn, Sent to Zhang Wu | Meng Haoran

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English translation

In the white clouds of North Mountain the recluse takes his own pleasure.

The lines are made over from Tao Hongjing, who answered a question about what the mountains hold with white clouds on the ridge and a pleasure that cannot be handed to anyone else. The recluse is Zhang Wu: it is his mountain, and the pleasure is his alone.

To see him I climb high; my heart flies after a bird until it vanishes.

"Try" admits that climbing may not show him anything — he tries anyway. The second line follows the gaze once the looking has given up: no man in sight, so the eye goes with a bird, and the bird goes too.

Sorrow rises with the dusk; mood is stirred by the clear autumn.

One word for sorrow, one for delight, and the same thing behind both: the man has not come. Each has its own source, and both begin on this evening.

Now and then I see villagers going home, walking the sand, resting at the ferry.

"Now and then" tells us he is standing high, scanning. Earlier he was watching for Zhang Wu; what he catches is other people on their way home.

The trees at the sky's edge look like cress; the boat by the river is a crescent moon.

Both lines use a likeness to measure distance. Trees small as cress mean the eye has travelled a long way; the boat like a moon is the curve of its hull.

When will you bring wine, and we get drunk together on Double Ninth?

The watching, the sorrow and the mood of six couplets land on an invitation. "When will you" is a tone of suggestion, not a date fixed.

赏析 · Commentary

登高的顺序 · The Order of the Climb

这首诗的次序很干净：先写张五在山上，再写自己登山，然后写登上去之后看见的东西。第二联是转折——登高为了望人，望不到，心就跟着鸟飞，最后鸟也没了。孟浩然没有写望了多久，只给了「灭」这个结果。这个结果定下后面几联的调子：人还在山上，想做的事已经做完了。

The order of the poem is plain. First Zhang Wu up on the mountain, then the climb, then what is seen from the top. The second couplet is the turn: he climbs in order to see his friend, fails, and his heart goes after a bird until the bird too is gone. Meng Haoran does not say how long he looked, only that the bird vanished. That result sets the tone for the rest: he is still on the mountain, and what he came to do is already over.

愁和兴各有来处 · Sorrow and Mood, Each With Its Source

第三联把两个词分到两边：愁归傍晚，兴归清秋，各有各的来处，却发生在同一次登高里。孟浩然不解释这两样为什么能同时存在，后面四句就是答案——村人回家、树小如荠、江边舟如月，看见的全是别人和极远的景，里面没有张五。愁是等人不来，兴是眼前这个秋天本身好。两句并排一放，先把这首诗的两股力气点出来，再交给景物去分。

The third couplet puts one word on each side: sorrow belongs to the dusk, mood to the clear autumn. Each has its own source, and both happen in the same climb. Meng Haoran does not explain how they coexist; the four lines that follow are the explanation. Villagers going home, trees small as cress, a boat like a crescent — everything seen is other people and great distance, and none of it is Zhang Wu. The sorrow is waiting for someone who does not come; the mood is that this autumn evening is good in itself. Set side by side, the two lines name the poem's two forces before the scenery divides them.

从望人转成望景 · From Watching for a Man to Watching a Scene

第四、五联不再提张五。看到的都是别人的归和极远的东西：村人回村、渡口歇脚、天边的树、江边的船。「天边树若荠」把距离推到头——树小到像荠菜，说明望得极远，也说明人确实不在那里。孟浩然把这个「不在」写得没有怨气，他仍然把眼前这个傍晚当好好景在看。末联才回到张五，约他重阳带酒来，用商量的口气，不催也不追。

The fourth and fifth couplets drop Zhang Wu entirely. What is seen is other people's homecoming and things very far off: villagers going back, resting at the ferry, trees at the edge of the sky, a boat on the river. "Trees like cress" pushes the distance as far as it will go — small enough to be cress means the eye has travelled a long way, and means the man is not there. Meng Haoran writes the absence without complaint; he goes on treating the evening as something good to look at. Only the last couplet returns to Zhang Wu, inviting wine on Double Ninth in a tone of suggestion that neither hurries him nor chases after him.

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