21. Boating on Ruoye Creek in Spring | Qiwu Qian

开篇两句把两件事分开说：一个是一直没断的念头，一个是随水漂的船。次序不能倒。心里那个东西立住了，船怎么走、走到哪里都不算失控。后面三联的行程全是这个前提的结果——转西壑、望南斗、看雾看月，诗人一处也没提到自己想去哪。全诗写的是漂，读起来却不慌。

The opening couplet separates two things: a wish that has never broken off, and a boat that drifts with the water. The order cannot be reversed. Once the thing in the mind is fixed, wherever the boat goes counts as no loss of control. The three couplets of travel that follow are all consequences of that premise — turning into the gorge, seeing the Dipper, watching mist and moon — and nowhere does the poet say where he wants to go. The poem is about drifting, and yet it never feels unmoored.

第四联两句都在写「动」，动法不一样：雾是往上飘的，月是往后退的。月不会退，是船在往前。綦毋潜不写船速，只写月亮落下去多少，读者的身体就知道船走了多远。前面刚写过「隔山望南斗」，那是抬头；这里月亮低到身后，是回头。一次泛舟的位置变化，全在这两个动作里。

Both lines of the fourth couplet write motion, and in different ways: the mist drifts upward, the moon drops behind. The moon does not move back; the boat is going forward. Qiwu Qian does not state the boat's speed, only how far the moon has fallen, and the reader's body knows the distance covered. Just before this the star was seen across a mountain, which is looking up; here the moon has sunk behind him, which is looking back. The whole shift of a night on the water sits in those two movements.

末联的「弥漫」不是新词。第四联的潭烟正飘得弥漫，诗人顺手把这个词从景上取下来，安到「生事」上：雾散得没有边界，往后的日子也一样看不清。他没有说穷、没有说不得志，只说愿意做一个拿钓竿的老头。这个愿望前面五联的行程已经替他铺垫好了——一整夜顺着水走，本来就是在练这件事。

The word in the last couplet is not new. The mist on the pool in the fourth couplet was already spreading, and the poet takes the word off the scene and sets it on his livelihood: the fog has no edge, and neither does the future. He does not say he is poor or disappointed, only that he would rather be an old man with a rod. The five couplets of travel before have prepared that wish for him — a whole night of going where the water leads is already a rehearsal for it.