A Hermit Visited but not Encountered

Introducion:

The verse takes the form of a dialogue in a terse, plain and colloquial style, but gives birth to a significant, thought provoking image.   

 

Text:

Fǎng yǐn zhě bú yù

 访    隐  者 不 遇

（唐）贾岛

 

sōng xià wèn tóng zǐ

 松    下   问   童 子，

yán shī cǎi yào qù

 言 师   采  药 去。

zhǐ zài cǐ shān zhōng

只  在  此  山     中，

yún shēn bù zhī chù

 云    深   不 知 处。

 

A Hermit Visited but not Encountered

Jia Dao(Tang)

 

About the hermit I ask a boy under a pine,

And he answers that his master is gone out,

Into the mountains to gather herbs for medicine,

Yet for the heavy clouds he knows not his where about.

 

Comment

The verse takes the form of a dialogue in a terse, plain and colloquial style, but gives birth to a significant, thought-provoking image. Intriguing to note, the dialogue only provides the answers with the questions suppressed altogether, making the image all the more mysterious and clouded-where is the master? “Into the mountains” enveloped in the heavy clouds and nowhere to be found, for the dense clouds and nowhere to be found, for the dense clouds have veiled them all. However, the master living in seclusion seems to appear now everywhere, now nowhere—a misty, illusory image presents itself before the reader, whose imagination takes wing with the mysterious image, trying to find out the whereabouts of the secluded master.