Meng Haoran would like his entourage, please

And he doesn't see why he should write a good poem to get it

Missing Xin Major on a Summer’s Day at My South Lodge
Meng Haoran

In the west, the mountain light abruptly sets,
In the east, the slow freshwater moon ascends.
I loosen my hair, enjoy the evening’s cool,
Throw open shutters, lie luxuriously.
The lotus breeze will bring me sweet aromas,
The bamboo dewdrops drip as clear as a bell.
I’m about to take my qin and strum its strings
But I miss my band of brothers, far away.
And this puts me in mind of one old friend,
So midnight finds me lost in fervent dreams.

孟浩然  夏日南亭怀辛大
山光忽西落，池月渐东上。
散发乘夕凉，开轩卧闲敞。
荷风送香气，竹露滴清响。
欲取鸣琴弹，恨无知音赏。
感此怀故人，中宵劳梦想。

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If you’re looking for the best of Tang poetry, I can only apologise, because here we have another serving of Meng Haoran being bland. There is one nice bit of phrasing in the last line, where Meng has himself labouring at dreams of his friends in the middle of the night.

But the clever pun in the previous couplet doesn’t work at all. Meng makes a pun on the phrase 知音, which means a close friend. It comes from an old story: Boya was a great musician; Ziqi was a good friend and a good listener. When Boya played, Ziqi would know exactly what he was trying to express. Thus the word 知音, which literally means ‘to know the sound’ came to mean a close friend.

Meng makes a play on this word’s connection to music by saying, I’m about to pick up my instrument, but my close friend/listener isn’t here. This is a nice double meaning, but the sentence ends on a sour note: 赏. This means ‘to appreciate’. So Meng ends up saying, I don’t play because I don’t have my friend here to listen and appreciate me. He sounds much too pleased with himself, as though he only wants his friends there to sit around and applaud him.

I think I translated this because it appeared in the Chang’an movie. But it is not a great piece of work. Never fear! Next up is a really good piece by Meng.