ChineseStudy

223. Seeing Lingche Off | Liu Changqing

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English translation

Bamboo Grove Temple lies dim and green in the distance; faintly, its evening bell carries from afar.

Cangcang gives both deep color and dusk, while yaoyao marks sound arriving from far away. Before the temple becomes a clear object, its bell locates it across the landscape.

Bearing his bamboo hat and wrapped in the slanting sun, he goes alone toward the green hills and recedes into the distance.

He carries or wears the hat as the poet watches the monk return to the mountains. The angled sunlight moves with the departing figure until he is far away.

赏析 · Commentary

钟声在前，行人在后 · The Bell Arrives Before the Traveler

诗先让归处出现，再写归去的人。竹林寺藏在暮色里，晚钟已经传来；灵澈随后走进同一片青山。钟声像一条看不见的路，把寺院和行人接在一起。送别者没有跟上去，只站在原处听、看，直到朋友远去。

The destination appears before the traveler. Bamboo Grove Temple is hidden in dusk, but its bell has already arrived; Lingche then walks into the same hills. The sound forms an unseen path between monastery and monk. The person seeing him off remains behind, listening and watching until his friend recedes.

送别写得安静，却不是无情 · A Quiet Farewell, Not an Unfeeling One

四句没有劝酒、挽留或泪水，感情放在目送的时间里。前两句听钟，后两句看人，声音和身影都越来越远。“独归远”说的是灵澈独行，也让送别者的位置显出来：一个人归山，另一个人留在山外。

There is no wine, pleading, or tears. Feeling is carried by the duration of watching someone leave. The first couplet hears a bell; the second follows a figure, and both sound and figure grow more distant. Goes alone describes Lingche, but it also reveals the one left behind: one returns to the hills, the other remains outside them.

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