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After the chaos, parted for ten years:
Only once grown up, we happen to meet—
I ask your family—am startled to realize—
You state your name—then I recall your face.
Ever since then, everything has changed—
Our talking ceases with the evening bell.
Tomorrow it’s the Baling road for you—
The many autumn mountains again between us …
喜见外弟又言别
十年离乱后，
长大一相逢。
问姓惊初见，
称名忆旧容。
别来沧海事，
语罢暮天钟。
明日巴陵道，
秋山又几重。
The cousin is specifically a younger maternal first cousin. Lost in translation: it’s the cousin’s “former/younger” face. Idiom: everything has changed is literally “a green ocean thing,” understood as “a great change.” The last line is slightly elliptical, but that the “many layered” mountains will be between us is heavily implied. It’s irrelevant to understanding the poem, but for completeness, Baling is in Yueyang, Hunan.
---L.
Only once grown up, we happen to meet—
I ask your family—am startled to realize—
You state your name—then I recall your face.
Ever since then, everything has changed—
Our talking ceases with the evening bell.
Tomorrow it’s the Baling road for you—
The many autumn mountains again between us …
喜见外弟又言别
十年离乱后，
长大一相逢。
问姓惊初见，
称名忆旧容。
别来沧海事，
语罢暮天钟。
明日巴陵道，
秋山又几重。
The cousin is specifically a younger maternal first cousin. Lost in translation: it’s the cousin’s “former/younger” face. Idiom: everything has changed is literally “a green ocean thing,” understood as “a great change.” The last line is slightly elliptical, but that the “many layered” mountains will be between us is heavily implied. It’s irrelevant to understanding the poem, but for completeness, Baling is in Yueyang, Hunan.
---L.