ChineseStudy

20. Seeking the Hermit of the West Mountain and Not Finding Him | Qiu Wei

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English translation

At the very top there is a thatched hut, thirty li straight up.

Distance and height are given at the start. "Straight up" says nothing about how the path winds, only the direction, and thirty li is handed over to one upward push.

He knocks at the gate and no servant answers; he peeps in and finds only a table.

Two actions, one after the other: knock, then look. No servant means no answer; only a table means the emptiness is visible. Both halves are needed to establish that nobody is home.

Either he has driven off in a firewood cart, or he is fishing the autumn water.

The two phrases are guesses. He does not go and ask anyone; he supplies the man two possible places himself, in a flat tone that shows he is not in a hurry.

By a mischance we do not meet; I strove to come and can only admire from afar.

The first word is a crossing that misses, the second is effort spent. One line gives the outcome, the other the wasted labour, and both are about people rather than scenery.

Grass shows green after fresh rain; pine sound comes in at the evening window.

Here he stops looking for the man. The two lines are simply what is in front of him: a colour, a sound, one to each.

Arriving here matches the deep solitude, and it is enough to wash heart and ear.

The verb means to fit together. The solitude belongs to the place; he arrives and fits it, rather than projecting a mood onto it.

Though there is none of the host-and-guest exchange, I have come away with something of the doctrine of purity.

"Though none" and "rather gained" are one step back and one forward. What should have been there is not, and what he had no right to expect is. The poem's turn sits in this couplet.

When the mood is spent he goes down the mountain; why must he wait for the man?

The phrase for a spent mood comes from the old story of Wang Ziyou, who sailed all night to visit a friend, reached the door, and turned back. "Why must" cancels the thirty li of climbing at the start.

赏析 · Commentary

找人这件事是怎么退场的 · How the Search Leaves the Poem

前四联都在找人：敲门、窥室、猜他去了哪、叹白跑一趟。到第五联人不见了，只剩草色和松声。丘为不再交代隐者，也不再交代自己的失望。这个退场不是忽然的，第四联已经把「空」字说出口，第五联只是接着往下写眼前的东西。找的那件事放下了，地方才亮起来。

The first four couplets are all about the search: knocking, peeping, guessing where the man went, regretting the wasted trip. By the fifth couplet the man is gone from the poem, and only grass and pine sound remain. Qiu Wei stops accounting for the hermit and for his own disappointment. The exit is not abrupt: the fourth couplet has already said the effort was in vain, and the fifth simply goes on with what is in front of him. Once the search is put down, the place lights up.

「虽无」和「颇得」 · "Though None" and "Rather Gained"

第七联是全诗真正转弯的地方。上句承认没有宾主相待的那份情意，下句说倒得了清净的道理。两句合用「虽」「颇」，一个让、一个得，让出去的是人事，得回来的是对山水的领会。丘为把这次落空写成一次交换：见不到人，就把这个地方整个收到了。

The seventh couplet is where the poem actually turns. One line admits that none of the host-and-guest courtesy happened; the next says something of the doctrine of purity did come. The two words for "though" and "rather" make a concession and a gain, and what is conceded is human, what is gained is an understanding of the place. Qiu Wei writes the failure as an exchange: no man to meet, so the whole mountain is taken in instead.

用别人的旧事给自己收尾 · Ending on Someone Else's Old Story

末联的「兴尽」不是随口用的词。王子猷雪夜乘船去访戴逵，到门口不进去就回来，人问缘故，答「乘兴而行，兴尽而返」。丘为把这件事挪到自己身上，等于给白跑三十里找了个体面的说法。可他不说破，只接一句「何必待之子」，语气像自言自语。前面八句攒下的辛苦，被这四个字轻轻放下。

The phrase for a spent mood is not casual. Wang Ziyou once sailed through a snowy night to visit Dai Kui, reached the door, and went home without entering; asked why, he said he had gone on impulse and returned when the impulse was spent. Qiu Wei moves the story onto himself, which gives the thirty wasted li of climbing a dignified account. He does not spell that out, only adds "why must he wait for the man", sounding as if he were talking to himself. The labour built up over eight lines is set down lightly by those few characters.

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