To a Fellow Passenger on the Boat on the Zhejiang River

Introducion:

Now the tides are gone, the river is calm. The poet with another passenger is bound for Midlle Yue.   

 

Text:

Dù zhèjiāng wèn zhōu zhōng rén

渡   浙   江   问    舟      中  人

孟浩然（唐）

 

Cháo luò jiāng píng wèi yǒu fēng

 潮     落   江    平    未   有 风，

Piān zhōu gòng jì yǔ jūn tóng

 扁     舟    共  济 与 君   同。

Shíshí yǐn lǐng wàng tiān mò

 时  时  引   领   望   天   末，

Hé chù qīng shān shì yuè zhōng

 何  处    青     山   是  越    中？

 

To a Fellow Passenger on the Boat on the Zhejiang River

Meng Haoran (Tang)

 

The water is smooth, the tides ebb, the winds still,

And I take a little boat along the river with thee.

Now and then I eagerly gaze towards the distant sky,

And wonder where is middle Yue, with its green hill.

 

Comment

Now the tides are gone, the river is calm. The poet with another passenger is bound for Midlle Yue. They have met by chance and now are in the same boat. Polite and respectful, he calls the fellow-traveller “Gentleman”. As the boat glides along, the undulating green hills and ridges on the banks are receding and the poet keeps craning his neck to look ahead, suggestive of his anxiety to get to his destination Middle Yue. But in which hill does it lie in? why cannot I get there soon?