Home › Poems › Farewell (Dismounting to Drink)
Sòng BiéFarewell (Dismounting to Drink) 送别
Wang Wei sees off a friend who chooses the hermit's life.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
下马饮君酒
xià mǎ yǐn jūn jiǔ
问君何所之
wèn jūn hé suǒ zhī
君言不得意
jūn yán bù dé yì
归卧南山陲
guī wò nán shān chuí
但去莫复问
dàn qù mò fù wèn
白云无尽时
bái yún wú jìn shí
Simplified characters; traditional title: 送別.
English translation
I dismount and offer you wine;
I ask you where you mean to go.
You say you have not found your way,
And will rest at the Southern Mountains' edge.
Then go—and ask me nothing more;
White clouds have no end in time.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The poem is a conversation in its simplest form: a drink, a question, an answer. The friend has "not got what he wanted" in his career. Wang Wei replies not with consolation but with acceptance — go, and do not look back. The white clouds, endless and free, are the hermit's true reward and suggest that this choice may be wiser than worldly success.
Background
Written by Wang Wei for a friend leaving official life to live as a recluse in the Zhongnan Mountains south of Chang'an.
Key words
- 何所之 hé suǒ zhī
- where are you going
- 不得意 bù dé yì
- unsuccessful, frustrated
- 南山 nán shān
- the Southern (Zhongnan) Mountains
About the poet: Wang Wei
Wang Wei was a poet, painter, musician and court official. A devout Buddhist, he wrote spare, luminous landscape verse; later critics said there is "a painting in his poems and a poem in his paintings." He is sometimes called the "Buddha of Poetry."
Lifetime: c. 699–761. Other famous works: Miscellaneous Poem (You Have Come from Home) (杂诗); Farewell (Dismounting to Drink) (送别); Autumn Evening in the Mountains (山居秋暝); Longing (相思); Deer Park (鹿柴); Bamboo Grove Retreat (竹里馆); Farewell to Yuan the Second on His Mission to Anxi (送元二使安西); Thinking of My Brothers on the Double Ninth (九月九日忆山东兄弟); Birdsong in the Ravine (鸟鸣涧); Joys of the Countryside (田园乐); Floating on the Han River (汉江临泛); In the Mountains (山中); Farewell in the Mountains (山中送别); Long Rain at Wangchuan (积雨辋川庄作); Magnolia Bank (辛夷坞); Seeing Off Shen Zifu (送沈子福之江东); Reply to Vice-Prefect Zhang (酬张少府); A Quiet Matter (书事); Song of Youth (少年行); My Retreat at Zhongnan (终南别业); Seeing Off Prefect Li of Zizhou (送梓州李使君).
Names from this poem
More by Wang Wei
- Farewell to Yuan Er on His Mission to Anxi送元二使安西
- Deer Park鹿柴
- Bamboo Grove Retreat竹里馆
- Thinking of My Brothers on the Double Ninth九月九日忆山东兄弟
- Autumn Evening in the Mountains山居秋暝
- Longing相思
- Miscellaneous Poem (You Have Come from Home)杂诗
- Birdsong in the Ravine鸟鸣涧