Confusion, confusion

Here's some Wang Wei

A Parting
Wang Wei

You dismount,
and share a drink,
and ask,
"Where are you headed?"
"Back down south.
Things didn't work out."
You don't ask any more,
just travel on.
And the clouds float endlessly.

王维  送别
下马饮君酒， 问君何所之？
君言不得意， 归卧南山陲。
但去莫复问， 白云无尽时。

---

The confusion is entirely mine. I got a bit busy, and I have no idea what I meant to post today. But I found a spare Wang Wei poem hanging about, and that’s always a good way to clear your mind.

This mysterious poem elegantly deconstructs the parting genre. Usually a parting is between two friends; here the two players are strangers. Often, they are named; here Wang abstracts almost all details of their identities. Usually, the parting involves speeches and drinking; here, those two elements are pared down to the bone. Usually, some expression of sadness is given; here, only the clouds represent the poem's meaning, or emotional core.

Li Bai’s famous parting poem makes a nice pairing with this one, only it turns out I haven’t posted that one yet, either.

So here’s a nice comparison:

---

A Gift on Parting (2)
Du Mu

Too much emotion looks the same as no emotion.
It just means we cannot smile when we raise a glass.
The candle has a heart, and mourns our separation,
It weeps until the dawn on our behalf.

---

See how much more emotionally explicit the Du Mu poem is? That lovely image of the weeping candle is overwrought, almost histrionic compared to what Wang Wei offers us. They call Wang Wei a Buddhist poet, and it’s not because of any overt religious elements in his poetry. Rather, it’s because of poems like this. He takes partings and meetings, and allows them to simply happen, as natural events. Though they carry emotion, the emotion too can simply wash through you. Where Du Mu takes the emotion of the event and imprints it onto the candle, Wang Wei takes the peace of natural motion and allows it to inhabit the space of human suffering.

I couldn’t find a picture that matches the delicacy of this poem, but it does come with an original pronunciation reading, courtesy of Cinix: