ChineseStudy

88. Seeing Off a Friend | Li Bai

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English translation

Green hills lie across the northern wall; white water winds around the eastern town.

Lie across is still, winds around is moving — the hills stay put, the water goes its way. The opening couplet names no person, only the hills and water of the place of parting, spreading the scene first.

Here, once we part, a single tumbleweed must travel ten thousand li.

The lone tumbleweed is a plant that rolls with the wind, a stock figure in old poetry for a wanderer. One parting, and at once a journey of ten thousand li.

The floating clouds, the wanderer's heart; the setting sun, an old friend's feeling.

Both lines are figures, yet neither says who is like what: the clouds are the traveler, the setting sun the one who stays. The clouds drift, the sun descends, and parting and staying are both in the scene.

We wave our hands and part from here; the horses whinny, as if unable to bear the separation.

The term ban ma, “horses that have left the herd,” comes from the Book of Songs line “the horses whinny.” The last line does not show a person weeping but a horse crying out, letting the sound of a creature give voice to the feeling of parting.

赏析 · Commentary

一首送别诗为什么不用一个「愁」字 · Why a Farewell Poem Uses Not One Word of Sorrow

全诗八句，写送别的场所、友人的远行、双方的心情、分别的动作，却没有一个直接写悲伤的字。伤感全由景物承担：白水绕着城，孤蓬飘向远方，浮云在动，落日将沉，连马都叫出了声。这种写法让诗显得清朗而不颓丧。李白写离别的常见态度是承认不舍但不渲染，这首是典型。读者读到最后，感到的是开阔天地里的一次告别，不是哭哭啼啼的场面。

Eight lines give the place of parting, the friend's long journey, the feelings on both sides, and the act of parting, yet not one word names grief directly. The sorrow is borne entirely by the scene: white water winding about the town, a lone tumbleweed carried far, clouds adrift, the sun setting, even the horses crying out. The method keeps the poem clear and unbroken rather than desolate. Li Bai's usual stance toward farewell is to admit the reluctance without working it up, and this is a model case. What the reader feels at the end is a parting in a wide world, not a scene of sobbing.

「浮云」「落日」这一联的妙处 · What Makes the Clouds and Sun Couplet Work

这一联把两个比喻并排摆着，不解释，靠读者自己对上号。云和日都是天上之物，一个飘走一个落下，正好对应一个走一个留。更细一层看，「浮云」无根，「落日」有情——无根是游子的处境，有情是故人的态度。李白没有写「我很难过」，他让落日替他难过。这种把情绪托付给自然物的做法，是唐诗抒情最常用的手段之一，用得准，比直接抒情更有余味。

The couplet sets two figures side by side without explaining, trusting the reader to match them. Cloud and sun are both things of the sky, one drifting off and one going down, answering exactly to one leaving and one staying. More finely: the clouds have no root, the setting sun has feeling — no root is the traveler's condition, feeling the old friend's attitude. Li Bai does not write I am sad; he lets the setting sun be sad for him. This entrusting of emotion to natural things is among the commonest means of lyric in Tang poetry, and used exactly it outlasts a direct statement.

末句的「班马」为什么用马不用人 · Why the Ending Uses a Horse, Not a Person

写离别写到最后，常见的做法是写人的泪、人的回头、人的话别。李白选了马。马是送行者与远行者分别时在场的第三方，它叫，是因为离群，而离群正是离别这件事在动物身上的对应。用马写人，比自己写自己更含蓄，也更像实况——两个人挥手的时候，确实只有马在叫。这个细节让全诗从写景抒情落回到一个具体的声音上，收得干净。

At the close of a farewell one usually writes tears, a backward look, words of parting. Li Bai chooses the horse. The horse is the third party present when the one who stays and the one who goes separate, and it cries out because it has left the herd — which is what parting is, transposed onto an animal. Writing the person through the horse is more reticent than writing the self directly, and truer to life: when two people wave goodbye, it is in fact only the horse that cries. The detail brings the poem back from scenery and feeling to a single concrete sound, and closes cleanly.

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