115. Sent from Within the Capital to the Monk Yuan | Meng Haoran
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
一丘常欲卧，三径苦无资。
English translation
I have long wished to lie on my own hill; the trouble is I lack the means for three paths.
My own hill means a place of retreat, and three paths alludes to Tao Yuanming's return, naming a recluse's garden. The couplet gives the two conditions of retreat: the wish and the money.
Original Chinese text
北土非吾愿，东林怀我师。
English translation
The north is not what I wish for; I long for the Eastern Grove and my master.
The north is the capital Chang'an, and the Eastern Grove is the temple on Mount Lu, standing for the monk Yuan's world. One line dislikes, one longs, and the attitude is plain.
Original Chinese text
黄金燃桂尽，壮志逐年衰。
English translation
Gold burns like cassia wood till it is gone; high aims fail year by year.
Burning cassia figures how costly things are — money spent as if burning cassia. The couplet writes his hardship in the capital: the money gone, the ambition worn away.
Original Chinese text
日夕凉风至，闻蝉但益悲。
English translation
Toward evening the cold wind comes; hearing the cicada, I only grieve the more.
The last line closes feeling on scene: cold wind and cicada are signs of autumn and of failure. The grief comes to rest on one cicada's cry.
赏析 · Commentary
「三径」和「一丘」的隐居意象 · The Recluse Images of Three Paths and a Hill
「三径」出自汉代蒋诩的故事，他在院中开三条小路，只与隐士往来；后来成为隐居家园的代称。陶渊明《归去来兮辞》有「三径就荒，松菊犹存」，遂使这个词广为人知。「一丘」出自《汉书》「一丘一壑，自谓过之」，指足以安身的山野。两个意象都指向「自给自足的隐居」，而孟浩然偏偏说「苦无资」——连隐居也要钱，这是这首诗的现实底色。
Three paths comes from the Han figure Jiang Xu, who laid three paths in his garden and received only recluses; it later stood for a recluse's home. Tao Yuanming's Return home has the three paths run wild, the pines and chrysanthemums remain, spreading the term. My own hill comes from the Han History, a hill and a valley meaning a patch of land enough to live on. Both images point at self-sufficient retreat, and Meng Haoran says he lacks the means for it — even retreat costs money, and that is the poem's realistic ground.
「黄金燃桂尽」的比喻 · The Figure of Gold Burning Like Cassia
「燃桂」出自《战国策》「楚国之食贵于玉，薪贵于桂」，说楚地的物价高得离谱。孟浩然用这个典故，写自己在长安生活的窘迫：钱像烧桂木一样消耗着。加上下句「壮志逐年衰」，两句合起来是一个完整的失意图景——不是忽然的失败，是慢慢地耗光。这种「慢慢」比激烈的失败更让人沮丧，也更符合他当时的实际处境。
Burning cassia comes from the Intrigues of the Warring States, where the cost of food in Chu is dearer than jade and firewood dearer than cassia, describing ruinous prices. Meng Haoran uses it for his straits in Chang'an: money consumed as if burning cassia. With the next line, high aims fail year by year, the two make a complete picture of failure — not sudden collapse but slow exhaustion. The slowness is more disheartening than a sharp failure and truer to his situation.
求仕不成又不甘隐居的矛盾 · The Contradiction of Failing at Office and Resisting Retreat
这首诗写于孟浩然在长安求仕碰壁之后。首联说想归隐，颈联说壮志衰退，中间又说北方不是自己想待的地方——三处说法放在一起，有一种矛盾：既想回山里，又不甘心就此回去。这种矛盾在唐代求仕不成的诗人身上很常见。他们写归隐诗时，往往带着一点不甘心的语气，这首诗的「苦无资」「壮志衰」正是这种语气的表现。
This was written after Meng Haoran met with failure seeking office in Chang'an. The opening says he wants to retire, the third couplet that his aims are fading, and between them that the north is not where he wishes to be — the three together hold a contradiction: he wants to go back to the hills and cannot accept going back this way. The contradiction is common among Tang poets who failed to gain office. Their retreat poems often carry a note of reluctance, and the lacked means and failing aims here are that note.