109. My Retreat at Zhongnan | Wang Wei
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
中岁颇好道，晚家南山陲。
English translation
In middle age I took much to the Way; late in life I made my home at the edge of the southern hills.
Taking to the Way means a liking for Buddhist truth, and the edge of the southern hills is the foot of Mount Zhongnan. The opening couplet gives the time and place of retreat, in a plain tone.
Original Chinese text
兴来每独往，胜事空自知。
English translation
When the mood comes I always go alone; the finest things only I know.
Going alone writes the solitary wandering, and only I know writes that no one shares it. The two lines are one thing seen from two sides: wandering alone is freedom and also solitude.
Original Chinese text
行到水穷处，坐看云起时。
English translation
I walk to where the water ends, and sit to watch when the clouds rise.
These are the most famous lines: coming to where the path runs out, without hurry, he sits and watches the clouds. They write a mind at ease with whatever comes and are the poem's core.
Original Chinese text
偶然值林叟，谈笑无还期。
English translation
By chance I meet an old man of the woods; we talk and laugh with no thought of returning.
By chance answers the going alone before: he was on his own, meets someone by accident, and talks till time is forgotten. The last line gives the other possibility of a leisured life — beyond solitude, an encounter.
赏析 · Commentary
「行到水穷处，坐看云起时」的意味 · What Walking to Where the Water Ends Means
这两句常被引用，因为它写出了一个人生态度：走到路的尽头，不焦虑，坐下来看云。从字面上看，它是写实的——沿着溪水走，水到源头就没了，于是坐下；坐下之后抬头，看见云从山间升起。但从这十个字里能读出更多：水穷不是绝境，而是另一种景致的开始。这种「不执着于抵达」的心境，与王维的佛学修养有关，也是后人反复引用的原因。
These lines are often quoted because they write an attitude to life: come to the end of the road, and rather than fret, sit and watch the clouds. Literally they are descriptive — following a stream until the water runs out at its source, then sitting; sitting, looking up, seeing clouds rise from the hills. But more can be read from the ten characters: the water's end is no dead end but the start of another view. This not clinging to arrival has to do with Wang Wei's Buddhist cultivation, and it is why later ages return to the lines.
「独往」与「偶然值」的关系 · The Relation of Going Alone and Meeting by Chance
第二联说「兴来每独往」，是独自出游；末联说「偶然值林叟」，是意外相遇。表面上两者相反，其实是同一种生活的两面：正是因为常常独往，偶遇才显得珍贵；而偶遇之所以能「谈笑无还期」，也因为对方和他一样随性。这首诗写隐居，没有写枯寂，反倒写出了一个有来有往的日常。
The second couplet says when the mood comes I always go alone, wandering on his own; the last says by chance I meet an old man of the woods, an unexpected encounter. On the face of it the two are opposites, and in fact they are two sides of one life: precisely because he usually goes alone does a chance meeting feel precious, and the meeting can run on with no thought of returning because the other is as free as he. The poem writes retreat without writing barrenness, and gives instead an everyday with comings and goings.
王维的「中岁好道」 · Wang Wei's Taking to the Way in Middle Age
王维中年以后倾心佛教，与僧人往来，禅学修养很深。这在唐诗里不罕见，但王维把佛理化进了山水，几乎不露痕迹。这首诗里没有一个佛学术语，却处处是「无心」「随缘」的意思——走到水穷、坐看云起、偶然遇人、忘归，都是不刻意、不强求的态度。读他的诗，不必处处找佛理，但知道他有这层背景，许多平淡句子就有了分量。
Wang Wei turned to Buddhism after middle age, associated with monks, and was deeply versed in Chan. This is not rare in Tang poetry, but Wang Wei dissolved Buddhist truth into landscape almost without a trace. There is not one Buddhist term in this poem, yet everywhere is the sense of not striving and following circumstance — walking to the water's end, sitting to watch clouds, meeting someone by chance, forgetting to return. One need not hunt for doctrine in his poems, but knowing the background gives weight to many plain lines.