117. Taking Leave of Wang Wei | Meng Haoran

这是孟浩然入长安求仕失败后，离开前写给王维的诗。四联的次序正是一次决定的过程：先说等不下去了，再说本来想走却舍不得，再问一句有没有人肯帮忙，最后自己回答——没有了，关门回家。诗里没有怨气，也没有强作豁达，只是把路走完了。留在末句的那个「掩」字，比任何一句牢骚都重。

This is the poem Meng Haoran wrote for Wang Wei before leaving Chang'an, after his attempt to obtain office there had failed. The four couplets are a single act of deciding: first that waiting is over, then that he had meant to go yet hates to part, then the question whether anyone will help, then his own answer — no one, so shut the door and go home. There is no grievance in it and no forced cheer; it simply walks the road to its end. The final word "shut" weighs more than any complaint would.

「寂寂」「朝朝」放在一起，读起来拖沓，拖沓正是要的效果——把「等」这个动作拉长。第三联的「谁相假」如果写成平叙，就成了抱怨；用问句，语气就轻，反倒更沉。孟浩然很少用重笔，这首诗里最重的字是「稀」和「守」，都是克制过的写法。

"Quiet, quiet" beside "day after day" reads slowly, and the slowness is the point: it stretches out the act of waiting. Were the third couplet's "who will lend a hand" written as plain statement, it would be a complaint; cast as a question it stays light, and that lightness presses harder. Meng Haoran seldom uses a heavy stroke. The heaviest words here, "rare" and "keep," are both restrained.

全诗没有一处提到长安，但「空自归」「当路」「知音稀」每一句都指向在京城谋事的现实。这是唐诗里常见的手法：把制度性的处境化成个人感受来写。读者不需要知道唐代荐举制度的细节，也能感到那种投书无门、只能回家的处境。具体的人情比制度的说明留得更久。

Chang'an is never mentioned, yet "going home to nothing," "those in power," and "few who understand" all point at the reality of seeking a career in the capital. This is a common Tang move: institutional circumstance rendered as personal feeling. A reader need know nothing about Tang recommendation practice to feel what it is to knock at doors and go home. A concrete human situation outlasts an explanation of the system.