26. Setting Out from Yangzi, Sent to Editor Yuan the Elder | Wei Yingwu

「凄凄」「泛泛」在诗里位置要紧。前一个写人的心情，后一个写船的样子，两句都靠这四个字立住。叠词的好处是不必说「很」或「非常」，把分量交给声音自己。船往烟雾里走，越走越看不清，情绪也就从这个「看不清」里出来，韦应物没有另外描写难过。

The doubled words matter to how the poem begins. One writes the man's feeling, the other the boat's look, and each line stands on its four characters. The benefit of doubling is that no word like "very" is needed; the weight is carried by the sound. The boat passes into the mist and grows harder to see, and the feeling comes out of that loss of sight — Wei Yingwu never describes the sadness separately.

第二联只有两样东西：一个还在响的钟，一片岸上的树。上句说自己是要回洛阳的人，下句说身后留下的广陵。「残」字写的是钟声正在散去，正和船在走、人在远相配。两句之间没有动词，读的时候空间一下拉开，声音在身后，路在前头。这是全诗最不肯把话说尽的十个字。

The second couplet holds only two things: a bell still sounding and trees on the bank. The first line names the man going home to Luoyang, the second names the Guangling he leaves behind. The word for "fading" says the bell is dying away, which fits a boat moving and a man receding. There is no verb between the lines, so the space opens up in one step, sound behind and road ahead. These ten characters are the least willing in the poem to say everything.

第二联的「归棹」已经是一条船，末句又把船拿出来，前后接上了。「世事波上舟」不是新比喻，是一天下来攒出来的：从出发起他就一直在水面上，走了一程才明白自己也在这条船上。「沿洄安得住」用问句收，不留安慰的话，也不给下一次见面的日子。

The oars in the second couplet already imply a boat, and the last line brings the boat back out, joining the two. The boat on the waves is not a new figure; it has been gathering all day — he has been on the water since setting out, and only after a stretch of it does he see that he is in the same boat as everything else. The closing question offers no comfort and no date for meeting again.