130. Chancing on Old Friends from My Home District at a Lodging in Jiangxiang | Dai Shulun
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
天秋月又满，城阙夜千重。
English translation
In the autumn sky the moon is full again; the city's towers and gate-towers rise layer upon layer in the night.
'Full again' suggests he has seen the moon full more than once, revealing years of wandering. 'A thousand layers' is both the density of the city's towers and gate-towers and the number of barriers.
Original Chinese text
还作江南会，翻疑梦里逢。
English translation
To think we can still meet here in Jiangnan—instead I suspect we are meeting in a dream.
'Fan' means 'on the contrary' or 'instead.' 'Suspecting we meet in a dream' conveys the unreality of meeting an old friend far from home; this line is the most moving in the poem.
Original Chinese text
风枝惊暗鹊，露草覆寒虫。
English translation
Branches in the wind startle the magpies hidden in the dark; dew-laden grass muffles the cold insects' cries.
Both lines are actual scenes of an autumn night, and both convey unease. 'Startles' and 'covers' move in opposite directions: one rouses and wakes, the other covers and muffles.
Original Chinese text
羁旅长堪醉，相留畏晓钟。
English translation
A man long wandering abroad might well stay drunk; lingering with one another, we dread the dawn bell.
'Dreading the dawn bell' means fearing the breakup at daybreak. The poem moves from the full moon to first light—a whole night passes.
赏析 · Commentary
偶遇比约定更动人 · A Chance Meeting Moves More Than a Planned One
题中「偶集」二字是全诗的关键：不是约好的见面，是碰上的。第二联的「翻疑梦里逢」正是从「偶」字生出来的——没有预期的相逢，人才会怀疑真假。戴叔伦把这一层写在最显眼的位置，后面的景物和挽留都由此展开：因为来得出乎意料，所以更舍不得散。
"Chancing" in the title is the poem's key: the meeting was not arranged but stumbled into. The second couplet's suspicion of a dream grows straight out of that word — a reunion without expectation is what makes a man doubt it. Dai Shulun puts this in the most visible place, and the scenery and unwillingness that follow unfold from it: because it came unlooked for, the parting is harder.
中间两联的分工 · How the Middle Couplets Divide the Work
第二联写人事，第三联写夜景。两联之间没有转折词，直接切换，读起来却不生硬，因为「疑梦里逢」本身就是一种不安，而鹊惊虫寒正好是这种不安的外形。唐诗写心绪，常不直接说，只在旁边摆两件形态相似的东西。读者自己会认出那两件东西讲的是同一件事。
The second couplet handles people, the third the night scene. Nothing marks the switch, and it reads smoothly anyway, because suspecting a dream is itself unease and startled magpies and muffled crickets are the outward shape of unease. Tang verse often writes a mood without naming it, setting two similarly shaped things nearby. The reader recognises that both are about the same thing.
末句为什么怕钟声 · Why the Bell at the End Is Feared
「相留畏晓钟」五个字里有三个动作：留、畏、鸣。早上钟一响，这一夜就结束了，偶遇也就要变回各奔东西。作者没有写第二天分别的场面，只写了怕钟响，等于把分别提前放进了这一夜。这种把未来的痛苦挪到当下写的手法，让全诗的时间始终绷着一根弦。
"Staying on, dreading the dawn bell" holds three actions in five words: staying, dreading, ringing. When the morning bell sounds the night is over and the chance meeting becomes two men going separate ways. The poet does not write the parting the next day, only the fear of the bell, which moves the parting back into this night. Relocating a future pain into the present keeps the poem's time under tension throughout.