96. Thinking of Li Bai at the End of the Sky | Du Fu
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
凉风起天末，君子意如何。
English translation
Cold wind rises at the end of the sky — how does it go with you, my friend?
The end of the sky means the farthest place; Li Bai was at this time on the road to exile at Yelang. The friend named as a gentleman is Li Bai, and the line is a greeting and a worry at once.
Original Chinese text
鸿雁几时到，江湖秋水多。
English translation
When will the letter-bearing geese arrive? On rivers and lakes the autumn waters are high, the waves perilous.
Geese were anciently said to carry letters; here the question is when word will come. “Much autumn water” describes the season and also hints at the dangers of the road.
Original Chinese text
文章憎命达，魑魅喜人过。
English translation
Fine writing hates a smooth fate; goblins delight when a man passes by, for they can devour him.
“Fine writing hates a smooth fate” is a famous line, saying talent and fortune work against each other: those who write well often have rough careers. “Goblins delight when a man passes by” means spirits and monsters are glad when someone passes, so they can devour him; it is a figure for petty men waiting for a chance to harm someone.
Original Chinese text
应共冤魂语，投诗赠汨罗。
English translation
You should speak with the wronged soul and cast your poems into the Miluo.
Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo, the type of the wronged man of letters. The last line sets Li Bai beside him — the highest of praise, and it carries sympathy for the wrong done to Li Bai.
赏析 · Commentary
杜甫怎样写对李白的牵挂 · How Du Fu Writes His Care for Li Bai
杜甫写给李白的诗有十几首，这首作于李白流放夜郎、遇赦东归前后。全诗从一阵凉风起笔，接着问消息、叹命运、比屈原，四联步步加重。值得注意的是他从不写自己如何难过，写的都是对方的处境：路远、秋水深、命运相克、冤屈如屈原。牵挂到了深处，反而变成替对方说话。这种把情感放在对方身上的写法，比自述更有分量。
Du Fu wrote more than a dozen poems to Li Bai, and this one comes from around the time Li Bai was exiled to Yelang and then pardoned and turning back east. It begins with a cold wind, then asks for news, laments fate, compares him to Qu Yuan — four couplets growing heavier step by step. Note that he never writes how sad he is; he writes the other's condition: a far road, deep autumn water, talent at odds with fortune, a wrong like Qu Yuan's. Care grown deep speaks for the other rather than itself, and that carries more than self-report.
「文章憎命达」为什么被反复引用 · Why Fine Writing Hates a Smooth Fate Is Quoted So Often
这五个字说出了一个悖论：文章写得好，往往因为作者经历了困顿；而仕途通达的人，写不出那种分量。杜甫说「憎」和「喜」，把抽象的规律写成了两种有意志的力量，好像文章和命运彼此敌对。李白一生正是这句话的注脚——才华绝世，命运多舛。后世的文人反复引用它，因为它既是解释，也是安慰：写不好也许不是坏事。
Five words state a paradox: writing goes well often because the writer has been through hardship, while a man whose career runs smooth cannot produce that weight. Du Fu uses hates and delights, turning an abstract rule into two forces with wills, as if writing and fate were enemies. Li Bai's life is the gloss on the line — matchless talent, ruinous fortune. Later writers quote it again and again because it explains and consoles at once: to write badly may be no bad thing.
末联把李白比作屈原的分量 · The Weight of Comparing Li Bai to Qu Yuan
把当代人比作屈原，是唐诗里极重的评价。屈原是含冤而死、以文章名世的典范，杜甫用他来比李白，等于同时说三件事：李白的诗足以比肩屈原，李白的遭遇同样是冤屈，而冤屈的人会彼此相通。末句「投诗赠汨罗」是一个想象的动作——李白把诗投进江里，送给江底的那个人。这个画面里有敬意，也有不忍。
To compare a living man to Qu Yuan is among the heaviest judgments in Tang poetry. Qu Yuan is the model of one who died wronged and is remembered for his writing, and using him for Li Bai says three things at once: Li Bai's poetry can stand beside Qu Yuan's; Li Bai's suffering is likewise a wrong; and the wronged understand one another. The last line's casting poems into the Miluo is an imagined action — Li Bai throwing his verses into the river for the man at the bottom. The picture holds reverence and also a refusal to look away.