282. Parting (Second of Two) | Du Mu
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
多情却似总无情，唯觉樽前笑不成。
English translation
Deep feeling seems like no feeling at all; at the wine cup I only find I cannot smile.
The opening line says that the deepest feeling is hard to show and looks almost cold. The cup holds wine, and cannot smile means that at parting even a forced smile will not come. From within to without, the couplet captures what cannot be said at a farewell.
Original Chinese text
蜡烛有心还惜别，替人垂泪到天明。
English translation
The candle has a wick and still pities the parting; it weeps for them until dawn.
Has a wick is a pun: the candle has a wick, and a person has a heart. Weeps refers to the wax that drips as the candle burns. The poet transfers human sorrow to the candle, saying it sheds tears for them until morning—when in truth it is the people who weep all night.
赏析 · Commentary
不写拥抱，只写笑不出 · Not an Embrace, Only the Failure to Smile
临别时该说些宽慰的话，可诗人偏偏写自己连笑都笑不出来。他用“多情却似无情”来解释这种冷淡：不是不在乎，而是在乎得太深。全诗没有眼泪，只有一句“笑不成”，却比痛哭更见情重。
At parting one is supposed to say something comforting, yet the poet writes that he cannot even smile. He explains the coldness with deep feeling seeming like no feeling: not indifference, but feeling too strong to show. There are no tears in the poem, only the line about being unable to smile, and it carries more weight than open weeping.
蜡烛为什么能替人哭 · How a Candle Can Weep for Them
末两句把蜡烛写成有情之物：它有“心”，会“惜别”，还会“垂泪”。这在今天看是拟人，在诗人笔下却是移情——自己哭不出来，就让蜡烛替自己哭。蜡烛烧到天明，正是他一夜未眠的证据。
The closing couplet makes the candle a creature of feeling: it has a wick, or heart; it pities the parting; it weeps. Today we call this personification, but for the poet it is a transfer of feeling—if he cannot weep, let the candle weep for him. That the candle burns until dawn is proof that he has not slept all night.