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『下終南山過斛斯山人宿置酒』　李白

Li Bai (701–762) is a Tang dynasty poet known for a) mundanity and b) embracing the booze. I’m not saying his entire body of work expresses his ideal world is best seen through beer goggles, but being at least tipsy is definitely a recurring theme… Hu2si1 (JP: Kokushi) san1ren2 is a hermit friend of Li Bai. That is all the information I can find on him. (The dictionary entry for 道士 doushi covers both Daoists and Buddhists, so without Chinese reference material, I’m at a loss as to which is correct.) Li Bai was also friends with Du Fu. Extremely influential guy. I’m doing a fabulously poor job of introducing him. I’m also too lazy to look up a date for this poem. Honestly the only reason I’ve translated this at all is because it comes up as a citation for 忘機 bouki/wang4ji1. As much as I’ve stared at this, I don’t love this translation. I could do better. Source text from here.

Classical Chinese

暮從碧山下 Dusk descends from the verdant mountain 山月隨人歸 The mountain and moon follow people home 卻顧所來徑 Yet looking back upon the road I just came down 蒼蒼橫翠微 A green mountainscape lies hazily ahead 相攜及田家 Carrying each other to reach rice paddies and houses 童稚開荊扉 Children open briar doors 綠竹入幽徑 Green bamboo enters the secluded path 青蘿拂行衣 Fresh ivy* brushes my travel clothes 歡言得所憩 Joyful words acquire a place to rest 美酒聊共揮 Fine liquor passes around as we chat together 長歌吟松風 We sing long songs to the pines and wind 曲盡河星稀 Melodies exhausted the river and stars are rare 我醉君復樂 I’m drunk you keep having a good time 陶然共忘機 Tipsy together we forget worldly concerns

*青 qing1 is usually blue but it describes “green” plants. I’m using “fresh” to not be redundant. I’ve looked at four dictionaries for what plant 蘿 luo2 could be. Lin Yutang says “turnip,” Mandarin Bridge says “radish,” Denshi jisho says “moss” or “ivy.” The “modern Japanese” translation below uses “ivy” so I will too. And image searching just gives me a strange assortment of plants and cartoon women.

I’m not translating the Classical Japanese on this one because it makes several choices I disagree with.

來る所の徑を卻顧すれば would make more sense as 来る所の徑を却って顧みれば even if it sounds a little repetitive. 卻顧 is not a word as far as my usual dictionaries tell me. I don’t like the way 6 lines (童稚 through 長歌) have an unnecessary space after the first two characters. Just add a comma! 美酒　聊か共に揮ふ I propose 聊 is a verb here, not an adverb. 陶然として共に機を忘れん I’ll take “pleased+thus” as “tipsy” but I think separating 忘機 into 機を忘れん is a bit much? I’m hard pressed to find a definition of 機 that even makes sense. It’s a “loom”; it’s a “machine”. It can be stretched into “opportunity”, “impetus”, the “inner workings” of something either physical or abstract, like the heart. bangs head on desk

Here’s the Modern Japanese translation

日暮れに碧山から下ってくると、 山月も我々についてくる、 下りてきた道を振り返れば、薄暗い山中に道がぼんやりと続いて見える 君と連れ立って田家につけば、子どもらが門を開けて迎えてくれた、緑の竹が幽徑まで生い茂り、青いツタが我が衣にまとわりつく 談笑しながら体を休めるところを得て、ともに美酒を酌み交わそう、松風に乗せて長々と歌を歌い、歌い終われば天の川もかすかになる 私は酔った、君もまた楽しめ、この境地に遊んでつまらぬことは忘れよう

Whenever we descend from the verdant mountain at dusk, The mountain and moon both come with us If we turn back to look at the path we’ve come down, We can see the path continues hazily into the gloomy mountains Accompanying you when we reach rice paddies and houses, Children open their gates to welcome us Green bamboo grows on even secluded paths Fresh ivy clings to my robes We acquire a place to rest our bodies while in pleasant conversation Lets pour drinks from this fine liquor together Singing songs for a long time on the [sound of] wind blowing through pine trees When we’re done singing the milky way grows faint I’m drunk, you keep having a good time Let’s stay like this for a while and forget about boring things

Absolutely bold take there proposing that 機 worldly affairs =つまらぬこと boring things

Alternative translations * https://www.istudy-china.com/li-bai-descending-zhongnan-mountain-and-meeting-si-the-hermit-with-english-translations/ * https://allpoetry.com/Down-Zhongnan-Mountain-