# 朋遊情未已



## e.ma

This is a poem by Tang poet 寒山:


歲
去
換
愁
年
春
來
物
色
鮮
山
花
笑
淥
水
巖
岫
舞
青
煙
蜂
蝶
自
云
樂
禽
魚
更
可
憐
朋
遊
情
未
已
徹
曉
不
能
眠
​ 

Could you help me with the meaning of the seventh line? (朋遊情未已) Is it that he's been with friends and he can't forget about it or maybe he hasn't seen any friend in a very long time and he's so much willing to?


Thanks a lot


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## bg1996

One famous words about Chinese classical poems: 詩無定解/诗无定解。Only according to the surface of the sentence, it's like the movie song--(after she went away, my heart will go on). I can make sure of the meaning of "朋,情未已", but 遊 has many other meanings. For example, someone left his friends and couldn't go back or meet each other soon. 
遊:
1.travel for visiting other place or people 2. go to other place for business, studying, working 3. euphemism--pass over

If you can't understand it yet, welcom to ask forwards. By the way, if you are a beginner, choose some simple articles.


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## e.ma

Thanks a lot, bg1996. So you'd say he was wishing to travel for visiting some friends?

Chinese poetry is difficult indeed, but such a pleasure... Besides, I didn't choose it: it chose me


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## bg1996

No. Just the poet talked about his friend. And his friend 游, I prefer to choose 仙游(die)，as the poet continued to say: all the night he couldn't fall asleep. If only his friend left him for some days , even for a long time, he would have been stayed all the night.


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## e.ma

The poet who wrote this poem retired to the mountains, where  he lived for decades before dying himself. As he was isolated from other people for extremely long periods, it's not unthinkable that a single walkaround with a friend could arise in him deep emotions.

But of course if, as you say, he's speaking of the death of a friend (I didn't know that meaning of 遊), it's even more understandable.

Thank you for your help, bg1996


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## LikeBarleyBending

I googled this poem and found that it is a chan-poem by the Chan master Han Shan. So this poem is hard to understand without the background knowledge of Chan Budism. 

I got a hint： 朋游 is also referred to as ‘朋旧’（old friends being apart for a long time） e.g 怪我苦何事，少年垂白须？ 朋游今在否？落拓更能无？（杜牧）.

So the last two sentences of this poem might mean that the poet missed his old friends so much that he stayed up the whole night.


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## e.ma

LikeBarleyBending: 非常感谢。


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## Flaminius

After a 30-minute self-study on 寒山, I learnt that his phraseology is very different, if not idiosyncratic, from other Tang poets.  I think there is room for an interpretation wherein 朋遊 is not a single word as used by 杜牧.  I mention this because the traditional Japanese interpretation of the poem is  that 朋 is a transitive verb with the implicit object being the natural beauty that 寒山 adores for several lines.

The entire line is;
having them [nature] as friends, I enjoyed and the sensation never died away.


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## kkmp

1. About the word 朋游。

Here 朋 means 群聚, a group of friends or relatives doing something happy together. For example, we have:
朋酒：亲友聚饮
朋宴：聚朋宴饮
朋淫：群聚淫乱
朋饮：聚饮
朋戏：群聚嬉戏。

So 朋游 means a couple of friends hiking together.

2.  Brief interpretation of the poet.

岁去换愁年，春来物色鲜。 
A brand new spring  comes and everything is refreshing.

山花笑渌水，岩岫舞青烟。 
Mountains, happy flowers, greeen river, rocks, dancing clouds.

蜂蝶自云乐，禽鱼更可怜。
Swarms of bees and butterflies are happy. Birds and fishes are attractive. 
（可怜 means pitiful in modern Chinese but here in ancient Chinese it means attractive in a delicate way).

朋游情未已，彻晓不能眠。
The delightful feeling of the daytime hiking with my friends is so everlasting that I am sleepless till day is dawn.

This poet is written in a refrained delightful style, which is very distinctive in Tang poetry. I like it.


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## e.ma

Thanks a lot; that's been so helpful!

Flaminius: thanks for your search about Han Shan's terms, this is a very interesting point for me. After you, I have to consider again the verse's meaning as (roughly): "My feeling for Nature's companionship does not yet come to an end". Is it (more or less) right?

kkmp: I've been reading the poem just the way you do it, so I'm very glad to see your confirmation. I have to consider Flaminius point carefully, but in the end, if I don't get to it, I will surely take yours! 
As far as I can understand, his description of Nature around in the whole poem is emphasizing this 朋 between things (flowers 朋 waters, peaks 朋 clouds, bees and butterflies 朋 themselves), which, in contrast, makes him feeling even more lonely [when his friend departs].

But it could also be (as Flaminius points) that the sight of those things gives him such a 朋 feeling as to prevent him from sleeping.

Any further comments would be very much welcome.


After such a good response of yours... I feel like posting one more couple of questions I have about 寒山's verses ; I'll open different threads


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## e.ma

I forgot to say in my last post that by the moment I'm sticking to LikeBarleyBending's "hint" which, not in contradiction with kkmp's, points to a feeling for friends *he hasn't seen in a long time*.

Sorry: too many interesting posts, and I forgot the first I read. How could I?
Thank you LikeBarleyBending for sharing your insight


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## LikeBarleyBending

Flaminius said:


> After a 30-minute self-study on 寒山, I learnt that his phraseology is very different, if not idiosyncratic, from other Tang poets. I think there is room for an interpretation wherein 朋遊 is not a single word as used by 杜牧. I mention this because the traditional Japanese interpretation of the poem is that 朋 is a transitive verb with the implicit object being the natural beauty that 寒山 adores for several lines.
> 
> The entire line is;
> having them [nature] as friends, I enjoyed and the sensation never died away.


 
This is really helpful. No wonder I found that some articles on Chan Buddhism say this poem shows Han Shan's deep love for nature.


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## e.ma

Mmm... I see.
And this meaning could also fit into your 杜牧's quote (I see the parallelism in 朋游/落拓). Yes...

But I can't help thinking he's talking about his loneliness. In many of his poems he compares Nature's "feelings" with his own feelings. 

So how about this:
He watches how "friendship" happens in Nature around him; then, this "friendship" thought remains in him preventing him from sleeping. 
Or even: after seeing how all natural things have their "friendship", his own 朋游 (having no human friends, but Nature) weighs on him as to keep him awake.

Couldn't it be possible?


(I recognise the authority of the articles you mention -I've also found some myself- but, as gb1996 pointed out, 詩無定解)


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## LikeBarleyBending

詩無定解，exactly. That's just the way most Chinese learn the ancient Chinese poems-we do not always necessarily or exactly know the meaning of each character, sometimes it is impossible. However this does not prevent us from getting a feeling and understanding of a poem. Poems, especially ancient Chinese ones, are often hard to interpret character by character. 
Personally, I think both of your two interpretations are possible, but I have to say I have poor knowledge of ancient Chinese language. I even had no idea of Han Shan before I read your post.


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