56. Bidding Farewell to Uncle Yun the Royal Proofreader at Xie Tiao Pavilion in Xuanzhou

A poem by Li Bai, translated by Hyun Woo Kim, and an announcement

What deserts me and goes—

That a day of the past cannot stay.

What scatters my heart—

That a day of the present has many a hassle and worry.

A long wind sends away the wild geese of autumn, ten thousand lis;

Facing this, it is plausible that one enjoys the high pavilion.

The writing of Penglai, the style of Jianan;

Among them, Xie the Younger was also pure and emanating.

Together harboring the unworldly taste and the mighty will to soar,

I crave to climb to the blue sky and look around the sun and the moon.

I drew a sword and cut the water—the water flew again.

I raised a goblet to decay and melt down the gloom—again, the gloom.

A person's life in the world does not correspond to one's will;

Tomorrow morning, with disheveled hair, I will woo a little boat.

「宣州謝脁樓餞別校書叔雲」

棄我去者

昨日之日不可留

亂我心者

今日之日多煩憂

長風萬里送秋雁

對此可以酣高樓

蓬萊文章建安骨

中間小謝又清發

俱懷逸興壯思飛

欲上青天攬日月

抽刀斷水水更流

舉杯消銷愁更愁

人生在世不稱意

明朝散髮弄扁舟

From Hyun Woo:

Are you a fan of Li Bai? It seems the best way to get a poem dedicated to you from him is to befriend him first and then say that you should leave at some point. He will write you a poem as you part. For three weeks in a row, we are reading Li Bai’s goodbye poems. Uncle Yun got one like this, too. There are two possible candidates for who “Uncle Yun” was. Two people from the Li family, who were called Yun, worked as Royal Proofreaders.

In my opinion, today’s poem is rather untypical for Li Bai and possibly the most depressing poem from him. (Uncle Yun, is your nephew doing okay?) Li Bai’s past days have deserted him, while his present “has many a hassle and worry”, “scatter[ing his] heart”. He is trying to refresh himself by enjoying the autumn scenery at “the high pavilion”, named after the poet Xie Tiao. He is thinking of the poet, referring to him as “Xie the Younger” since there is another famous poet Xie: Xie Lingyun, whom he called “Master Xie” in the poem we read two weeks ago. He admires Xie the Younger a lot, considering him noteworthy even among the “writing of Penglai, style of Jianan”. “Penglai” is how the royal library was called in the Han Dynasty, and “Jianan” refers to a specific era during the dynasty when the writings of Cao Cao and his sons gained fame. (Yes, it’s that Cao Cao, the villain of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He is considered to be a good poet.)

Li Bai, as a poet who has “the unworldly taste”, feels the “mighty will to soar” within himself. He “crave[s] to climb to the blue sky”. Nevertheless, his ambition is wrecked in the very next lines. All his effort seems to be like trying to “cut the water” with a sword, only to let it flow again or drink away “the gloom”—but “again, the gloom”. Here, I am reminded of two short lines from Mayakovsky’s suicide note: “любовная лодка/разбилась о быт.”—the boat of love/has wrecked on everyday life.

The reason why Mayakovsky came to my mind must have been because of Li Bai’s last line mentioning “a little boat”. Now Li Bai understands that a “person’s life in the world does not correspond to one’s will”. Mayakovsky faced the same harsh truth. While the medieval Chinese poet chose to become a wanderer, the Rusian poet chose death.

Announcement

Let’s brighten up the mood now, though! Remember that I said I would be giving out some tea to celebrate the first anniversary of this newsletter? The winners are:

Catherine Hyland

,

Debbie

, and

Garrett Thomas

! Debbie, and Garrett, please give me your address so that I can send you the nice tea to drink while reading some Chinese poems (I already have your address, Catherine, so no worries.) Of course, even if you aren’t receiving the tea, I also need the addresses for sending the postcards this month. So, if you are a paid subscriber, please don’t forget to give me your address. I will be either DMing/emailing you this week, asking for the address.

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