Farewell

送别

王维

山中相送罢，

日暮掩柴扉。
春草年年绿，

王孙归不归。

Farewell

Wang wei
Friend, I have watched you down the mountain
Till now in the dark I close my thatch door
Grasses return again green in the spring,
But O my Prince of Friends, do you?

Farewell

Wang Wei

Translated by Andrew W.F. Wong

Here in the hills, I bade you farewell;

And by dusk I closed my twiggen door.

O grass will again be green next spring!

Might you, my lord, be back once more?

  Yesterday, my friends and I talked more than 3 hours in our building; we had to mention the farewell because some of these friends only exchange in Finland one semester. Therefore, we will back in three weeks and maybe it means we cannot meet each other any more after December. I have no idea about how to express myself exactly, saying goodbye probably is the saddest event in the world I guess.

  Sometimes I really wanna my mind can change those bad sorrow emotions into some acceptable feelings. Like you could think as there will be more nice guys walk into your life and you also can enjoy the life in next semester. But I can not ensure that I can forget these beautiful days in the rest of my life, hence I`m not capability to make all the thoughts come true.

  Consequently I select this one to be my after-chat blog- Farewell.

  It`s a classical quatrain written by Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei with the simple structure. In the last continuous days, I`m looks like only focus on the quatrain, but actually I`m not posted 20-character poem each day intentionally.

  The author, Wang Wei, is a famed poet in ancient China, he also be considered as the representative of Pastoral. He is quite good at describing the sight and people of countryside, express the generous mind from nature, of course this poet, which I selected is not an exception.

  Having already seen you off in the mountains, it`s sunset now. The twilight is alike closing my firewood door.  The grass become green each spring, but my dear friend would you back?

  I translated simply by the direct meaning of this poem. It named Farewell, but as a matter of fact, the author did not say anything about farewell, the author pointed out that the process of farewell is already finished in the first sentence.  Then he describes the time of this poem- it`s sunset. At the same time the twilight was shining on my door.

  But he changed his visual angle suddenly, the grass always keep in fresh green every spring, it mean he says to his friend all the things in the nature will be brought back to its original condition that maybe can not escape.  Therefore, I just ask you straightforwardly “Will you back or not?” It seems a question, meanwhile it`s the hope that the author wanna his friend back to their hometown as well.

  I put two versions of Farewell in the first part, but I notice that the both of them translated the hero of last sentence as lord or prince. Actually I`m not approve their translation, if you translate these significant two characters into the original version “王孙” separately, the first character should be king and the second should be descendant, consequently probably the translator think the author say goodbye to the offspring of the king. However, for me it`s just a respectful symbol for his bosom friend.

  Sending this poem to all the leaving exchange students I met in JYV.