Presented on Leaving An Feng, Xu Kan

Xu Kan of Shouchun and his friend An Feng decided at the same time to seek office in Chang’an. Feng went first, as Kan stopped at his old mother’s house. Ten years later, Kan suddenly arrived in Chang’an and invited Feng to go back with him. Feng declined, ashamed to return home because of his long drifting life, and (on parting) they presented each other with a poem. However, Kan had actually died at home three years before.

You’ve lived in Chang’an for a while,
Ashamed and not returning home.
I’m leaving Chang’an, parting from you,
Cut up from consoling my honored parent.
I didn’t expect and hate being parted:
In Yellow Springs, it’s hard to forget you.

Appendix - Presented by An Feng on Xu Kan’s departure:
Since I departed my native land,
I’ve spent ten years in Qin’s Xianyang.
Tears spent, I hurriedly calmed my blood
For hadn’t I met my one old friend?
Today, that former friend departs
This me ashamed of my drifting life.
With parting feelings we say our poems.
Hemp clothes again conceal my tears.
Weeping from parting, we part from each other,
Shortly before the coming of spring.

留别安凤
作者：徐侃
〈寿春人徐侃，与安凤友善，相期同觅举长安。凤先行，侃以母老中止。十年后，侃忽至长安，仍约凤同归，凤辞以久漂泊，耻还故乡，各为诗赠荅。然侃死于家已三年矣。〉

君寄长安久，
耻不还故乡。
我别长安去，
切在慰高堂。
不意与离恨，
泉下亦难忘。

〈附〉安凤赠别徐侃
一自离乡国，
十年在咸秦。
泣尽卞和血，
不逢一故人。
今日旧友别，
羞此漂泊身。
离情吟诗处，
麻衣掩泪频。
泪别各分袂，
且及来年春。

The headnote doesn’t indicate who recited his poem first, but given An Feng doesn’t respond to Xu Kan’s admission that he’s in the Yellow Springs (the afterworld of Chinese mythology) i.e. is dead, it must have been him. There are other stories in this chapter where the ghost’s poem is given first, even when it’s clearly marked as a reply to a living person’s poem, which is then appended—which highlights that this is truly a collection of poems by ghosts, and not stories about ghosts that include poems. For now, I’ll keep translating the texts as given—there will be time later to edit things into narrative order, if that seems the best way to handle it. (This also brings up the question of whether to edit poems into the middle of stories at the point they’re recited/read in those cases where it Really Helps give context to responses.)

FWIW, Shouchun is in Anhui. The “drifting life” and his cheap hemp clothing both imply that An Feng failed to get a position as an imperial official. Xianyang was the original capital of the Warring State of Qin, turned into a suburb of Chang’an after the latter was built a few miles to the east, shortly before the last Qin King became the first Qin Emperor. An Feng’s poem is something of a clunker, sometimes stuffing two synonyms for (de)parting into a line and avoiding vivid images.

---L.