Tang poem · five-character old-style poem唐诗 · 五言古诗
wáng王wéi维Wang Wei · Tang唐
Farewell
xià下mǎ马yìn饮jūn君jiǔ酒
wèn问jūn君hé何suǒ所zhī之
jūn君yán言bù不dé得yì意
guī归wò卧nán南shān山chuí陲
dàn但qù去mò莫fù复wèn问
bái白yún云wú无jìn尽shí时
Underlined words have notes: tap one. The Pinyin button below shows or hides all pinyin. 一 and 不 are marked with the tone you actually say.字下有虚线的，点开有注释。下方的“拼音”按钮可以显示或隐藏全部拼音。“一”“不”标的是实际读出来的变调。
In this poem Wang Wei sees off a friend who is going off to live in retreat. The poem does not say who the friend was, and no one knows now. It is written as questions and answers. First he offers his friend wine, then asks where he is going. The friend says things have gone badly and he will go back to the Zhongnan Mountains to live quietly. Wang Wei himself had lived near those mountains and knew that life well. So at the end he comforts his friend with the endless white clouds.
这是王维送一位朋友去隐居的诗。朋友是谁，诗里没有说，后人也已经不知道了。诗用问答的形式写成：先请朋友喝酒，再问他去哪里，朋友说自己不得意，要回终南山隐居。王维自己也在终南山一带住过，对这种生活很熟悉，所以最后用“白云无尽时”来安慰朋友。
Wang Wei (701?–761) was a great Tang poet, and also a painter and musician. He was a Buddhist. In later life he lived half as an official and half as a hermit at Wangchuan, below the Zhongnan Mountains. His poems are calm and natural, often about hills, water and white clouds. Su Shi said there were "paintings in his poems".
王维（701？—761），字摩诘，唐代大诗人，也是画家和音乐家。他信佛，晚年在终南山下的辋川过着半官半隐的生活。他的诗清淡自然，常写山水和白云，苏轼说他“诗中有画”。
This poem has only thirty characters, but it is like a recording of a conversation. The speaker gets off his horse, offers wine and asks where his friend is going. The friend says life has gone badly and he will go to the southern mountains. There is a lot one could say next: comfort, advice, anger on his behalf. But Wang Wei says only: just go, I will ask no more. Only someone who truly understands a friend could say that. The last line gives no reasons, only a picture: white clouds drifting in the mountains, never ending. The clouds stand for freedom and peace, which last far longer than worldly success or failure. Reading it, a disappointed heart feels gently held up by the clouds.
这首诗只有三十个字，却像一段对话录音。“我”下马敬酒，问朋友去哪；朋友说不如意，要去南山。接下来本来有很多话可以说：安慰、劝说、替他抱不平。可王维只说了一句“但去莫复问”，你就去吧，我不问了。这是最懂朋友的人才说得出的话。最后一句不讲道理，只给一幅画：山里白云悠悠，永远飘不完。白云代表自由、安静，比人间的得失长久得多。读到这里，失意的心好像也被白云轻轻托住了。