Parted by death, we simply swallow our cries;
Parted by life, the grief always stays.
Jiangnan is the land of malaria;
There is no news from the outcast.
The old friend entered my dream:
Evidently, I thought of him for long.
“You are in a net as of now, yet
How could you? Do you have wings?”
I am afraid; is this not a living soul?
It is such a long way, and I can’t tell.
The soul comes, the maple forest turns green;
The soul goes back, the gateway turns black.
The setting moon, swelling on the roof of the house,
Rather hesitates, to illuminate your complexion.
“The water is deep and the waves are wide;
May you not be caught by a Jiaolong!”
死別已吞聲
生別常惻惻
江南瘴癘地
逐客無消息
故人入我夢
明我長相憶
君今在羅網
何以有羽翼
恐非平生魂
路遠不可測
魂來楓林青
魂返關塞黑
落月滿屋梁
猶疑照顏色
水深波浪闊
無使蛟龍得
From Hyun Woo:
Li Bai and Du Fu are regarded as the greatest poets of the Tang dynasty, if not throughout all the history of China. When they met, Li Bai was already famous while Du Fu was beginning to earn his reputation. They quickly befriended each other and traveled through many regions of China together.
However, when An Lushan Rebellion broke out, which I explained briefly last week, they were forced to go their separate ways. While Du Fu was with Emperor Suzong, Li Bai happened to stay with a member of the royal family who was later judged as a traitor. This resulted in Li Bai being locked up in a prison.
For some time, Du Fu could not find out what exactly happened to his friend. Was he executed? Was he exiled? Or was he still in the prison? Then one day, he met Li Bai in a dream and wrote two poems about it. Today’s poem is the first of the two. He likens Li Bai’s situation to being caught “in a net”. For Du Fu, seeing Li Bai in a dream felt as if he had grown wings and flown to see him again. At the same time, Du Fu feels scared that Li Bai might be already dead.
When it is time for Li Bai to go in the dream, Du Fu senses that a long way must wait ahead of him. Before they part, Du Fu tells Li Bai not to get caught on the way by a Jiaolong, a kind of dragon believed to live in the waters.
For some of you who might wonder what happened to Li Bai, he did not get killed, though he was exiled. He would send some poems to Du Fu in return. One of the lines he wrote for Du Fu was “魯酒不可醉”: can’t get drunk with drinks of Lu.
Lu is the traditional name of Shandong region, and Du Fu and Li Bai reached here on their wanderlust days. Last weekend, I was in Shandong too, Qingdao to be precise. The unfiltered Tsingtao Original Beer was one of the best beers that I have ever had in my life. I am the kind of person whose face turns red immediately after a pint of beer, but Li Bai seems to be always right when it comes to drinking. You can’t get drunk with this Lu beer: you can’t endure getting drunk, since you will want to drink more on and on without passing out.
Tsingtao Original Beer is sold only in Qingdao. It has been only a few days, but oh, how much I miss it already…
If you enjoyed my work, you can buy me a cup of tea. I am not a coffee person, by the way.