133. Passing the Night Apart from Han Shen at the Yunyang Post-Station | Sikong Shu
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
故人江海别，几度隔山川。
English translation
Old friend, we parted across rivers and seas; how many times have mountains and rivers come between us.
"Parted across rivers and seas" means a separation in wide lands; "how many times" means too many to count. These two lines describe the length of the parting and prepare for the sudden meeting that follows.
Original Chinese text
乍见翻疑梦，相悲各问年。
English translation
Meeting so suddenly, I doubt it is a dream; grieving together, we ask each other's age.
"Suddenly seeing, doubting a dream" shares the same idiom as Dai Shulun's "doubting we meet in a dream"; it is common language in poems of such reunions. "Asking each other's age" is very concrete: after years apart, the first question is how old you are.
Original Chinese text
孤灯寒照雨，深竹暗浮烟。
English translation
A lone lamp coldly lights the rain; in the deep bamboo, mist floats in the dark.
The two lines are pure scenery, the breathing space of the whole poem. Lamp, rain, bamboo, mist—all four are dark, wet, and cold.
Original Chinese text
更有明朝恨，离杯惜共传。
English translation
And what is more, there will be tomorrow's grief of parting; we pass the farewell cup with care, one to another.
"And what is more" means "moreover, there is still"; it adds another layer. "Passing the farewell cup with care" describes the urging of drinks; the word "care" slows the gesture down.
赏析 · Commentary
中间那两句景物是留白 · The Two Scene Lines as Breathing Space
「孤灯寒照雨，深竹暗浮烟」在情节上没有推进任何东西，但它是这首诗必需的一段。前两联写十年的分别和乍见的惊疑，情绪已经满了；第三联把镜头推到窗外，让读者跟着看一眼夜色，第四联再回到眼前。唐诗写重逢，常需要这样一段缓冲，否则整首诗会憋在情绪里出不来。
"A lone lamp coldly lighting rain, deep bamboo dimly raising mist" advances no plot and is a necessary passage. Two couplets of ten years apart and the shock of sudden meeting have filled the feeling; the third pushes the camera past the window to let the reader look at the night, and the fourth returns. Tang reunions usually need such a buffer, or the poem stays pent up in its own emotion.
「各问年」比「相拥而泣」更真 · "Asking Each Other's Age" Truer Than Weeping
久别重逢最动人的往往不是戏剧性的动作，而是这类小问题。司空曙不写拥抱不写痛哭，只写两人互相问年纪——因为十年过去，最直接的变化就是岁数。这一问里含着比较：你比我老了多少，我比你老了多少，还有暗中盘算的余生。一句家常话，留下的东西比抒情句多。
What moves in a reunion is often not a dramatic gesture but a small question. Sikong Shu writes no embrace and no sobbing, only the two asking each other's age — because after ten years the plainest change is the years. A comparison sits in the question: how much older are you than I, how much older am I, and behind it a silent estimate of what is left. One ordinary question leaves more than a lyrical line.
末联的「惜」 · "Care" in the Last Couplet
「离杯惜共传」是全诗唯一写动作的收尾。两个人把酒杯传来传去，这个动作本身没有信息量，但配上「惜」字，意思就是：还想再拖延一会儿。司空曙没有写他们说了什么，只写杯子在手里传递，等于把「不愿散席」写成了一个可以看见的动作。
"Passing the parting cup with care" is the only gesture at the close. Two men handing a cup back and forth carries no information by itself, but with "care" it means they want to put off the end a little longer. Sikong Shu does not report what they said, only the cup moving between hands, turning the wish not to break up into something visible.