48. Seeing Off Chen Zhangfu

A poem by Li Qi, translated by Hyun Woo Kim

The south wind of April, the barley ripens yellow;

Jujube flowers yet to fall, the long shadows of wutong trees.

Parting in the morning with the blue mountain, to see again in the evening;

Leaving the gate, the horse cries, thinking of the old hometown.

Lord Chen, how robust and grand you have raised yourself!

The beard of a Qiu, the eyebrows of a tiger, along with a big forehead.

Having stacked ten thousand tomes of books in your belly,

You will never lower your head in the countryside.

At the eastern gate, you bought us liquors and let us drink,

Taking all matters lightly, as if everything were a feather of a wild goose.

Lying down drunk, we did not know the white sun had set;

We just gazed sometimes, and a lonely cloud was up high.

The top of the long river's waves are black, touching the sky;

The boat taking a berth at the quay may not go across.

The traveler of Zheng country is yet to reach home;

The wanderer of Luoyang sighs to no avail.

I heard them say that you have many acquaintances back home;

Having resigned from a government post yesterday, what will it be like today?

「送陳章甫」

四月南風大麥黃

棗花未落桐陰長

青山朝別暮還見

嘶馬出門思舊鄉

陳侯立身何坦蕩

虬鬚虎眉仍大顙

腹中貯書一萬卷

不肯低頭在草莽

東門酤酒飲我曹

心輕萬事皆鴻毛

醉臥不知白日暮

有時空望孤雲高

長河浪頭連天黑

津口停舟渡不得

鄭國遊人未及家

洛陽行子空歎息

聞道故林相識多

罷官昨日今如何

From Hyun Woo:

I am often amused by how brutally casual Tang poets were when it comes to their poems’ titles: “Sending a Daughter to the Yang Family”, “Evening, Londging at Xuyi Province”, “Changan, Running into Ping Zhu” and so on. They just have you to let you know what situations made them write the poems. Today’s poem, “Seeing Off Chen Zhangfu”, is no exception. Li Qi was seeing off Chen Zhangfu and wrote a poem about it.

Li starts by describing the scenery of the season. "Blue mountain” is a recurring object in Chinese poetry, and it seems the poet is implying that though they are parting with each other, Chen will see another blue mountain back home. Nevertheless, there is not much time to share long words of goodbye. Even Chen’s horse is crying, already “thinking of the old hometown.”

Li goes on to praise Chen. “The beard of a Qiu, the eyebrows of a tiger, along with a big forehead” must mean Chen looks good and manly (Qiu is a dragon with horns), and he is even well-read. Indeed, he “will never lower [his] head in the countryside.” After that, he reminisces about the time they spent together. “Lying down drunk, we did not know the white sun had set;/We just gazed sometimes, and a lonely cloud was up high.” must be my favorite lines from today’s poem.

Chen seems to have left at a certain point before the next line. Now Li feels worried about him since the waves on the river are high. From the following lines, we can infer that Chen is from Zheng region and Li is in Luoyang. Still, something bothers Li even more than the waves do: the people of Chen’s hometown. Before Chen “resigned from a government post”, many people would have said that they knew him. Will they still treat Chen the same way? Chen will find out soon.

If you enjoyed my work, you can buy me a cup of tea. I am not a coffee person, by the way.