55: For a Jinling Tavern Farewell, Li Bai

55: For a Jinling Tavern Farewell

The wind blows the shop full of willow blossoms as

Mme. Wu shouts and pushes her wine on all to taste.

Sons and brothers of Jinling have come to see each other off;

Wishing to go, or not to go, each drains his cup.

I ask of you, please, which is greater: the loss of separation or

the water that flows down from the east?

8: Mountains and Aspects

Footnotes to the previous Du Fu poem:

1. Daizong refers to Mt. Tai, the quintessential Chinese 'sacred mountain', so the poem is about Du Fu contemplating Mt. Tai as he looks on it, or from its heights down onto the world. In China a 'mountain' refers not to a single peaked formation, but to a collection of what Westerners might call individual mountains or hills; a system of heights, like /\/\/\ instead of /\.
2. During the Spring and Autumn period, the border between Qi and Lu ran through Mt. Tai, so this use of the place names parallels the later use of Yin and Yang in the way it divides and dualizes the mountain.
3. Great Transformations is a philosophical term that makes reference to the basic operations of nature itself. Literally, the two characters mean "Creation / Change" but I have chosen "Great Transformations" for reasons I explain below.
4. Yin and Yang are familiar to many in the West as the Twin Forces that underlie certain strands of Chinese metaphysics. In many ancient texts, such as the Book of Songs, they also refer to the northern and southern faces of mountains.

8: Look on Sacred Peaks, Du Fu

Now how about Old Daizong

Qi and Lu are yet green here

Great Transformations cherish his aspect

His Yin and Yang cut morning from evening

The hot springs in his breast birth strata of cloud

His hard glare receives returning birds

Gathering facing his final peak

Many mountains are made small below