103. Written on Returning to Mount Song | Wang Wei
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
清川带长薄，车马去闲闲。
English translation
The clear river winds by a long stretch of brush; the carriage goes at ease.
At ease writes the unhurried motion of the carriage. The opening couplet gives the scenery and pace of the return, both slow, matching the mood of going home.
Original Chinese text
流水如有意，暮禽相与还。
English translation
The flowing water seems to have a mind; evening birds return together.
Seems to have a mind is a transfer of feeling — the water has none, and the poet feels it seeing him along. Return together echoes Tao Yuanming's birds returning as a flock: the birds go to their nests, and the man goes back to the hills.
Original Chinese text
荒城临古渡，落日满秋山。
English translation
A desolate town by an old ferry; the setting sun fills the autumn hills.
The couplet moves from near to far: desolate town and old ferry close by, setting sun and autumn hills beyond. Desolate, old, setting, autumn — all four carry a chill that answers the mood of retreat.
Original Chinese text
迢递嵩高下，归来且闭关。
English translation
Far off beneath high Mount Song, I have come back, and for now I shut the gate.
Far off writes the distance to Mount Song, shutting the gate the resolve to withdraw. The last action is closing a door, grounding the return in a decisive gesture.
赏析 · Commentary
归隐诗为什么要写路上的景 · Why a Poem of Return Dwells on the Road
这首诗的题目是「归嵩山作」，重点是「归」这个动作。四联里前三联都在写归途所见——水、鸟、城、渡、落日、秋山。它没有一句说「我要归隐了」，但每一处景物都带着归隐的色调：慢、静、苍凉。末联才出现「闭关」这个决定。这种写法把决心藏在过程里：不是先有决心再上路，是在路上慢慢成了决心。
The title is written on returning to Mount Song, and the weight is on the act of returning. Three of four couplets give what is seen along the way — water, birds, town, ferry, setting sun, autumn hills. Not one line says I mean to withdraw, yet every feature carries the color of retreat: slow, quiet, chill. Only the last couplet gives the decision to shut the gate. The resolve is hidden in the passage: not resolve first and then the road, but resolve forming along the road.
「流水如有意」的移情 · The Transferred Feeling in the Water Seems to Have a Mind
流水没有意志，但诗人在归途中看它，觉得它像在相送，这就是移情。移情的作用是把孤独感减轻——一个人走在路上，水、鸟都成了同伴。而「暮禽相与还」更直接：鸟也知道回家，人也在回家。两句合起来，让归途不显得凄凉，反而有一种被自然接住的安稳。
Water has no will, yet the poet on the way home sees it as seeing him along — that is transferred feeling. Its work is to lighten solitude: walking alone, water and birds become company. And the evening birds returning together is more direct still — the birds know to go home, and so does he. Together the two lines keep the return from feeling bleak and give it instead the steadiness of being caught up by nature.
王维的「荒城」「古渡」为何不悲 · Why Wang Wei's Desolate Town Is Not Sad
「荒城临古渡，落日满秋山」字面是苍凉的，但放在归隐的语境里，它不构成悲。原因在于全诗的速度：车马「闲闲」，流水「有意」，鸟「相与还」，一切都是舒展的。荒城古渡在这样的节奏里，是风景，不是衰败。王维写景常这样——同样的景物，因心境不同而意义不同。读他的诗要先看整体的调子，再看个别字眼。
A desolate town by an old ferry, the setting sun filling the autumn hills is bleak on its face, yet in a setting of retreat it makes no sorrow. The reason lies in the poem's pace: the carriage at ease, the water seeming to have a mind, the birds returning together — all of it unhurried. Within such a rhythm the desolate town and old ferry are scenery, not decay. Wang Wei often writes this way: the same features mean different things by different moods. Read him for the overall key first, then the individual words.