226. An Autumn Night, Sent to Qiu | Wei Yingwu
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
怀君属秋夜，散步咏凉天。
English translation
Thinking of you on this autumn night, I walk slowly and recite beneath the cool sky.
Zhu means to coincide with or occur at this moment. The remembrance does not remain indoors: walking and reciting allow it to unfold through the autumn night.
Original Chinese text
空山松子落，幽人应未眠。
English translation
Pine seeds fall in the empty mountains; you, living there in seclusion, must still be awake.
The poet need not literally hear the pine seeds at his friend's retreat. From his own autumn night he imagines another far away, and the word must marks the scene as an affectionate supposition.
赏析 · Commentary
两个人共享一个秋夜 · Two People Sharing One Autumn Night
前两句写诗人所在之处，后两句转到邱员外居住的空山。两地没有直接联系，秋凉和未眠把它们接在一起。诗人没有说对方也在想自己，只推测他还醒着。这份克制使友情更可信：所能确定的只是自己怀人，远方的情形留在想象中。
The first couplet stays with the poet; the second moves to the empty mountains where Qiu lives. No road visibly joins the two places, but autumn coolness and wakefulness do. The poet does not claim that his friend is thinking of him in return, only imagines that he too remains awake. The restraint makes the friendship convincing: his own remembrance is certain, the distant scene only imagined.
松子落下的声音有多轻 · The Faint Sound of Falling Pine Seeds
松子落地本来声音很轻，只有环境极静时才可能听见。诗把它放进“空山”，让寂静有了尺度。末句再写未眠，便能解释为什么这样细微的声音会进入想象：夜深、人醒着、山中无事，任何一点动静都格外清楚。
A pine seed makes little sound when it falls and can be heard only in deep quiet. Placing it in empty mountains gives stillness a measure. The final line's wakefulness then explains why so slight a sound enters the imagination: late night, an alert listener, and an undisturbed mountain make every small movement distinct.