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44. Farewell to My Uncle Li Yun, Secretary, at Xie Tiao's Pavilion in Xuanzhou | Li Bai

Contents

Text

English translation

What abandons me — the days of yesterday — cannot be held; what troubles my heart — the days of today — is full of care.

Both lines open with a long clause about what: time gone first, then the heart tangled. The pitch is set high from the start.

A long wind blows ten thousand li and sees the autumn geese off; against that, a man can drink deep in a high tower.

The first two lines pressed down; these two open out. Wind, geese, high tower all widen the chest.

Penglai's writing, the Jian'an bone, and between them young Xie's clear rush.

Penglai is the palace library where his uncle serves; young Xie is Xie Tiao, whom the tower is named for. Judging the writing judges the men.

We both hold the untethered mood, and the strong thought takes flight, wanting to climb the blue sky and view the sun and moon.

Both pulls the two men together. A moment ago he was judging poetry; now the feeling flies straight up.

Draw a blade to cut the water and it runs faster still; lift a cup to drown the sorrow and the sorrow grows.

One syntax twice: the harder the attempt, the worse it goes. The word still comes twice, each half pushing against itself.

A man in this world does not get his way; tomorrow morning, hair loose, I will take a small boat.

The close lands on a concrete motion. Hair loose means untied, the same posture as that earlier poem's evening cool.

赏析 · Commentary

两个「日」开头，一直压着 · Two Lines of Days, All Pressing Down

起手两句都从「日」字上做文章：昨天留不住，今天全是烦。十四个字一句，长得拖沓，读起来像把一口气压在胸口吐不出来。前面压得越沉，第三句长风送雁、第四句酣饮高楼，放开的时候就越见出力气。这首诗的情绪起伏，全在这两端的落差里。

Both opening lines work off the word day: yesterday cannot be held, today is all care. Fourteen characters to a line, long and dragging, reading like breath held in the chest. The heavier the press, the more force the third line's long wind and geese and the fourth's deep drinking in the high tower show when they let go. The rise and fall of this poem lives in the drop between the two ends.

「抽刀断水」这一对 · That Pair About Cutting Water

两句用同一个句法，句句都是白费力气：刀砍水，水照旧流；酒消愁，愁照旧在。李白不劝人也劝不了自己，只把无效这件事说两遍。两个「更」字前后对撞，念起来干脆，意思却是越使劲越没辙。这是全诗最流传的两句，靠的就是这种拧着来的写法。

The two lines share one syntax, and each is wasted effort: the blade cuts the water and the water runs on; the wine goes after the sorrow and the sorrow stays. Li Bai neither advises anyone nor can help himself; he just states the futility twice. The two words still collide front to back, crisp to say and meaning that the harder you push the less you can do. These are the best-known lines in the poem, and what carries them is exactly this twisted construction.

从高楼到扁舟 · From the High Tower to the Small Boat

前面一会儿飞上青天看日月，一会儿抽刀断水，全是大的动作和大的情绪。末句忽然缩小：明天一早，散着头发，划一只小船。不是豪言，是一件说得出做得到的事。李白收尾常用这个办法，把满纸的力气最后落到一个具体的动作上，反而比喊口号更立得住。

A moment earlier he is up in the blue sky looking at sun and moon, or cutting water with a blade — all big motions, big feeling. The closing line suddenly shrinks: tomorrow morning, hair loose, a small boat. Not a boast but something he could actually do. Li Bai often closes this way, letting a page of force settle onto one concrete act, which stands up better than a shouted line ever would.

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