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絮延賢膈 Question and Answer on the Mountain

絮延賢shn zhn鼻 w竪n d叩

t叩n鼻 (618 -907)
l b叩i (701-762)

腆у臼w竪n y炭 h辿 y狸 q朝 b狸 shn,
膃筝膈xio 辿r 鐔湛 d叩 x朝n z狸 xi叩n
括九サt叩o hu 鐔鐔炭 shu yo r叩n q湛,
紊育bi辿 yu tin d狸 fi r辿n jin
fi r辿n jin

腆у臼w竪n y炭 h辿 y狸 q朝 B狸 Shn,
膃筝膈xio 辿r d湛 d叩 x朝n z狸 xi叩n
括九サt叩o hu 鐔鐔炭 shu yo r叩n q湛,
紊育bi辿 yu tin d狸 fi r辿n jin
fi r辿n jin

|#|Question and Answer on the Mountain

by Li Bai(701-762)
Tang Dynasty(618-907)

People ask me why I dwell on the Green Mountain,
I respond with a smile, my heart is at leisure.
Peach blossoms in the water flow far away,
There is another wonderland beyond the human world.
Beyond the human world.

People ask me why I dwell on the Green Mountain,
I respond with a smile, my heart is at leisure.
Peach blossoms in the water flow far away,
There is another wonderland beyond the human world.
Beyond the human world.
Beyond the human world.

|#|Li Bai l b叩i (701-762) is one of the greatest, the most renowned and admired poets in China. The land of his ancestors was Chengji, Longxi (today's Qinan,Gansu Province). At the end of the Sui Dynasty鐚581-618鐚, his forefathers went to Cuiye (part of Anxi Duhufu during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), today's Kyrgyzstan) and that was the place of Li Bai's birth. When he was very young, about 5 years old, he moved to Changlong, Mianzhou (today's Jiangyou, Sichuan) with his father.

Li Bai was influenced by both Confucianism and Taoism. He started to travel around the country when he was 25 years old. He then entered the imperial court and became a member of the Han-lin Academy at the age of 42. He was greatly delighted and eager to serve the emperor as a capable statesman. However, the Emperor Xuanzong only used him as a wonderful palace poet to write trivial lyrics. He was unwilling to serve as such a meaningless function, so he left the capital after less than two years and started his second period of travel, aimlessly wandering all over the country. He was then charged with being an adherent of the rebel cause and sentenced to exile, though he was pardoned while on the way. He died of an illness at Dangtu in today's Anhui.

Li Bai lived during the most flourishing times in Tang Dynasty (618-907).Most of his poems reflected the positive spirit of the times. He is considered to be the foremost romantic poet of the Tang Dynasty and his writing style has influenced poets down to the present time.

More than 1,000 poems by Li Bai are still in existence. They are very popular and are recited by the Chinese from their childhood.
|#||#|This is a seven-character quatrain (each line consists of seven characters, and has a strict tonal pattern and rhyming scheme) with a light and faraway poetic flavor.It expresses the poet's leisurely and peaceful heart, caring little for fame and gain and detached from secular society,and it also expresses his fondness for nature.

For a period of time, Li Bai idled on Bi Mountain. Someone wondered why he lived on the mountain and he wrote this poem as an answer. Another title of the poem is Shan Zhon鼻 Da Su Ren-Answer to the Layfolk from the Mountain.

Bi Mountain is in today's Anlu county, Hubei Province. According to the records of Anlu county annals, another name for Baizhao Mountain is Bi Mountain. On the mountain there is peach blossom rock, it is said that this is just the place where Li Bai used to read his books.

The first line: 腆у臼 w竪n y炭 h辿 y狸 q朝 b狸 shn People ask me why I dwell on the Green Mountain.
Since the other title of the poem is Answer to the Layfolk (common people) from the Mountain, this line implies the person who asks the question is someone common; the question highlights the subject of the poem and captures our attention. Bi Mountain is the name of the mountain, Bi, means green, and hints that the environment is peaceful and beautiful.

Anyway, when the questioner wants to hear the answer, the poet intentionally does not answer.
The second line: 膃筝膈   xio 辿r b湛 d叩 x朝n z狸 xi叩nI do not answer you, but smile with an easy/ peaceful / leisurely heart.

x朝n z狸 xi叩nmy heart is easy and at leisure not only reflects poet's heart when he is on the mountain, but also points out that the question in the first line is not something new, Something I know already however, I just do not want to tell you because something wonderful is difficult to express in words.

Therefore,I smile to your question, but do not answer, just let you guess. This keeps the reader in suspense, while adding change and making the poem absorbing. The emotion and attitude to life of the poet are expressed through the word xianpeaceful, leisurely and easy.

The last two lines: 括九サ, 紊育 t叩o hu li炭 shu yo r叩n q湛, bi辿 yu tin d狸 fi r辿n jinPeach blossoms in the water flow far way;there is another wonderland beyond the human world.

While in these two lines   the author writes about the landscape of the Green Mountain, which is in fact answering the question in a skillful way, telling people why he lives in the mountain and hinting at his good emotional state at that time.

Let us imagine: on a spring day, by a small streamlet that flows through the forest, the sight of pink peach blossoms accompanying the green mountains, together the fallen petals flow far away with the water;a poet is sitting on the huge stone reading a book.Isn't that just like Shi Wai Tao YuanArcadia?

These two lines combine the peaceful environment and the easy heart of the poet. It does not have an answer, but also there is an answer already. They write about the landscape in the late spring, but, there is not any sadness as there is with many poems that express how people do not have the ability to hang on to the spring.

The last line: bi辿 yu tin d狸 fi r辿n jinThere is another wonderland beyond the human world. It states the poet's feelings frankly. On the peaceful mountain, there is another distinctive wonderland, which is beyond the world of human beings and is much better than the hustle and bustle of human society. Here is just the best outcome; it is his ideal Spiritual Home.This is to answer with a non-answer.

Now we have seen that there are only 4 lines in this little poem, but there are many things in it: question, answer, statement, depiction and remark;much content is contained within a short space and with a natural and simple language, a leisurely and easy tone, deep connotation and a light and faraway artistic conception.

If we think of the fate of Li Bai, we can understand why he would have liked staying on the Green Mountain,n n辿ng cu朝 m辿i zh辿 yo sh狸 qun 鼻u狸, sh鱈 w b湛 d辿 ki x朝n y叩nhow can I bow down to the nobility if that puts me in a state of unhappiness? (the last line of Meng You Tian Mu Yin Liu Bie by Li Bai)

Since his dream could not come true in reality, since he loved freedom and was innocent and romantic,the best method for him to detach himself from the heavy and cruel reality was to go into the natural world of the mountains and water.Only when he was there, would his talent and passion be really developed and released and his soul be at peace forever.

The famous politician, calligrapher and poet Li Dongyuan (1447-1556) in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) said: The value of a poem depends on its meaning. The value of the meaning depends on its distance, not its nearness, its lightness not its thickness; something thick and near can be seen clearly; something light and far away is difficult to know. For example... Li Tai Bai's t叩o hu li炭 shu yo r叩n q湛, bi辿 yu tin d狸 fi r辿n jinpeach blossoms in the water flow far away; there is another wonderland beyond the human world...something light but strong, near but far away, it is difficult to explain to the common people.
|#|I enjoy Li Bai's poems, not only for their wonderful artistic conception, but also because I like his liberal attitude to life. After all, in this world, besides being an officer to work for the country, there are many more roads on which we can go,and many more things we can do, to enjoy ourselves and to help this world. Therefore, we should not keep going on just one road and if we have realized it is not the road most suitable for us, the cleverest way is to give it up, to open up or to go on a new road,and to enjoy another landscape. The sooner we give up on something that is not going to be successful, the better. Do you agree?

With much appreciation for Li Bai, I translated this poem and created a piece of music for it in 2007,and   then I painted a painting to go with it as my assignment at Chinese National Academy of Arts in 2012.

I do hope that my effort will be of some help for you in learning about Chinese culture and language.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please write to shirley@ebridge.cn.