Tasuoxing · A Traveler’s Lodging in Chenzhou
Song dynasty・Qin Guan
Classical Chinese-style Ballad
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How can I bear the lonely inn, shut against spring’s chill, as the setting sun fades amid the cuckoo’s cries?
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- 无事小狗仙
- 2025-02-11 17:46
- 45 reads
Mist hides the towers，moonlight blurs the ferry crossing. I strain to see Peach Blossom Spring, but nowhere can it be found. How can I bear the lonely lodging shut against spring’s cold，as the slanting sun fades amid cuckoo cries.
Plum blossoms sent by courier, letters borne by fish. They build this sorrow into countless layers. The Chen River happily winds around Mount Chen; for whom does it flow away toward the Xiao and Xiang?
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Translation
Mist hides the towers, and moonlight blurs the ferry landing; I search to the limits of sight, yet find no refuge like Peach Blossom Spring. How can I bear living alone in an inn, shut in by spring's chill, especially as the cuckoo calls and the setting sun sinks lower?
A courier brings greetings like a sprig of plum blossom; letters convey news from someone far away. Yet these messages only heap up countless layers of sorrow at separation. The Chen River was flowing perfectly well around Mount Chen—for whose sake must it leave here and flow toward the Xiao and Xiang?
Annotations
郴 (chēn) 州: Present-day Chenzhou, Hunan. 津渡: A ferry crossing. 桃源: The ideal world in Tao Yuanming's Account of the Peach Blossom Spring, here standing for a home where body and mind can find rest.
可堪: How could one bear it? 孤馆: An inn where one lodges alone. 杜鹃: The cuckoo, whose call often evokes a longing for home in classical poetry.
驿寄梅花: Sending plum blossoms by post, an allusion to Lu Kai sending a plum sprig to a friend. 鱼传尺素: A fish conveying a letter, drawing on stories such as a letter hidden in a fish's belly. 尺素: A short letter. 砌: To pile up in layers.
幸自: originally, in the first place. 潇湘: the region of the Xiao and Xiang rivers. “为谁” (for whom) is a question addressed to the river, conveying the feelings of someone banished far from home.
Introduction
Reading guide: Qin Guan wrote this lyric of sojourning while exiled in Chenzhou. Moving from disorienting scenery to letters and river water, it centers throughout on the feeling of being unable to find a place to belong. These translations and notes follow the original text currently displayed on the page.
Commentary
“失” (lost), “迷” (obscured), and “无寻处” (nowhere to be found) advance in succession. The first stanza does more than describe mist and moonlight: it makes even familiar landmarks unreliable. The “闭” (shut) of the lonely lodging joins the setting sun and cuckoo outside to create an atmosphere of confinement without help.
A letter might offer comfort, yet it brings home once again the fact of separation, so the anguish of parting is instead “砌,” built higher. At the end the speaker questions the river rather than himself. Though seemingly unreasonable, the question transfers the helplessness of wandering onto the scene before him, leaving an especially lingering resonance.
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Through Mist, a Heart Returns Home
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Fiction inspired by poetry
A Letter Across Xiaoxiang
When spring cold cuts off the postal route, Ye Su reads a letter abandoning a wife as a message longing for her return, certain those words will help the pregnant woman endure the present. Nine years later, A-Ting comes looking for her with a small coffin full of old clothes, asking only whether the letter ever truly said “等我” (Wait for me). Another letter arrives from the southern city. This time, A-Ting wants her to read every word without omission—and to come along on a journey.
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