27. Sent to the Taoist Master of Mount Quanjiao | Wei Yingwu
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
今朝郡斋冷，忽念山中客。
English translation
The office is cold this morning, and I suddenly think of the man in the hills.
The cold is the cause of the line. Feeling it himself is what makes him think of the other man; the thought does not come from nowhere.
Original Chinese text
涧底束荆薪，归来煮白石。
English translation
At the bottom of the ravine he bundles firewood, comes back and boils white stones.
Boiling white stones is an old image of a Taoist's practice. One line ties the firewood, the other boils the stones; both are plain work, and there is nothing ethereal in the imagining.
Original Chinese text
欲持一瓢酒，远慰风雨夕。
English translation
I would take a gourd of wine and go far to comfort him on this windy, rainy evening.
A single gourd is not much. Going all that way with so little shows the point is not the wine but the going.
Original Chinese text
落叶满空山，何处寻行迹。
English translation
Fallen leaves cover the empty mountain; where would I look for his tracks?
The thought is stopped as soon as it forms. The last line overturns the plan to go comfort him, and does it with a question, writing the mountain's look rather than his disappointment.
赏析 · Commentary
一个「冷」字推出全诗 · One Cold Word Starts the Poem
第一句只说郡斋冷，第二句立刻想到山里的人。韦应物不解释这个联想，可线索是明的：自己在屋里都觉得冷，山涧底下捆柴的那个人会怎样。全诗的体贴就藏在这个顺序里——先写自己，再写别人，中间没有过渡，也不需说明理由。
The first line says only that the office is cold; the second at once thinks of the man in the hills. Wei Yingwu does not explain the association, but the link is plain: if he feels the cold indoors, what of the man bundling firewood at the bottom of a ravine. The poem's consideration lies in that order — self first, the other man second, no transition and no need to state a reason.
「煮白石」这种日子 · A Life That Boils White Stones
想象对方在做什么，韦应物挑了两件事：捆柴、煮石。前者是活，后者是修炼的旧说。他不在仙气上做文章，捆柴写得和农活一样具体。这一联看着清苦，语气却平常，像在说一件对方天天做的事。后面想送酒，就是从这个「天天做」里生出来的。
Trying to imagine what the other man is doing, Wei Yingwu picks two things: bundling wood and boiling stones. The first is work, the second an old image of Taoist practice. He does not make anything of otherworldliness; the firewood is as concrete as farm work. The couplet looks austere but the tone is ordinary, as though describing something the man does every day. The wish to send wine grows out of exactly that everydayness.
把想去这件事写没了 · The Plan Erases Itself
第三联说的是想去，末联说的是去不了。转折处只有一个「落叶满空山」，没有写山路难走，也没有写自己公务缠身。韦应物让满山的落叶替他说完：不是不想去，是去了也找不到。「何处寻行迹」问的是路，说的是人，全诗停在这个问句上，酒始终没能送出去。
The third couplet says he wants to go; the last says he cannot. The turn is nothing but leaves covering the empty mountain — no account of a hard road, no mention of duties holding him back. Wei Yingwu lets the fallen leaves finish the sentence: not that he will not go, but that going would find nothing. The question asks about a path and means a person, and the poem stops on it, the wine never sent.