BOOKMARK

Rejoicing to Meet a Cousin Unexpectedly and Parting Again

By Li Yi Tang Dynasty

English Poetic Translation

Through ten long years of warfare and alarms,
We meet at last, now strangers grown to men.
We ask our names, startled in sudden arms;
We speak our youth, and ancient forms come then.
Of shifting seas since last we took apart,
We talk until the evening bell tolls deep;
Tomorrow down the Baling road you start,
Where autumn hills in layered shadows sleep.

Classical Chinese & Pinyin

十年離亂後，長大一相逢。
問姓驚初見，稱名憶舊容。
別來滄海事，語罷暮天鐘。
明日巴陵道，秋山又幾重。

shí nián lí luàn hòu, zhǎng dà yī xiāng féng.
wèn xìng jīng chū jiàn, chēng míng yì jiù róng.
bié lái cāng hǎi shì, yǔ bà mù tiān zhōng.
míng rì bā líng dào, qiū shān yòu jǐ chóng.

Philological Direct Translation

Ten years separation and chaos after,
Grown up, once we meet.
Asking surnames, startled at the first sight,
Stating names, remembering old faces.
Since parting, vast sea events,
Talk finished, evening sky bell.
Tomorrow, Baling road,
Autumn mountains, again how many folds.

Scholarly Exegesis & Cultural Commentary

I. Formal Poetic Architecture & Meter

This poem is written in the strict form of Seven-Character Regulated Verse, featuring a regulated tonal meter and precise parallel couplets. The rhyme scheme utilizes an even-line rhyme in the level tone category, establishing a resonant and lingering acoustic profile. The central couplets exhibit quintessential antithetical balance, pairing grand historical abstractions with intimate psychological moments.

II. Historical Chronology & Existential Impulse

Composed during the mid-Tang Dynasty, an era scarred by the prolonged aftermath of the An Lushan Rebellion and frontier skirmishes, the poem reflects the pervasive trauma of separation and displacement. The author captures the bittersweet reality of family members surviving a turbulent decade of civil war, only to be forced apart once more by the exigencies of official travel and military postings.

III. Line-by-Line Exegesis & Allusion Decoding

The poem traces a swift emotional arc from the shock of reunion to the sorrow of imminent parting, anchored by striking shifts in perspective across the couplets.

Lines 1-2 (Opening Couplet): Line 1 sets a temporal and spatial void, establishing that a decade of warfare has elapsed since the cousins last met. Line 2 portrays the physical realization of maturity, noting how time has transformed them into grown men.
Lines 3-4 (First Antithetical Turn): Line 3 describes the initial bewilderment of peering into a familiar yet aged face, while Line 4 highlights the moment a spoken name bridges the gap of memory to restore the childhood image.
Lines 5-6 (Second Antithetical Turn / Climax): Line 5 invokes the vast sea metaphor to summarize the monumental political and personal upheavals of the past decade. Line 6 grounds this expansive grief in the immediate sensory world as their conversation concludes with the tolling of the dusk temple bell.
Closing Lines (Resolving Couplet): The concluding couplet projects the traveler onto the lonely Baling road, where endless layers of autumn mountains symbolize the insurmountable distance and melancholy awaiting them both.

IV. Cultural Symbolism & Key Metaphors

The poem relies on traditional classical motifs to articulate complex emotional states without resorting to overt sentimentality.

Vast Sea: Used in the idiom of shifting seas to represent the radical, turbulent transformations of human lives battered by dynastic wars.
Evening Bell: A profound Buddhist and literary marker of time's relentless passage, marking the tragic boundary between reunion and renewed solitude.

V. Philosophical Core & Global Resonance

The underlying philosophical current reflects a fusion of Confucian familial duty and Daoist acceptance of transient existence. The suddenness of meeting amidst turmoil speaks to universal human vulnerability, capturing the sorrow of fleeting human connection against the indifferent grandeur of nature and history.