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[TN: The episode gets two epilogues not mentioned in the headnote.]
Zhangwu Reminisces about the Wang Woman
The waters do not go back west, the moon is briefly full—
This makes a person melancholy beside an ancient city.
I’m bleak: tomorrow we’ll split up by a fork in the road.
I know the hour we shall meet—but in what year or age?
Appendix
Composed by Li Zhu for Zhangwu
Stones sink—the distant sea is broad.
Swords part—the clear sky is wide.
You’ll meet, I know, without the sun:
Divided hearts are full of sunset.
水不西归月暂圆，
令人惆怅古城边。
萧条明早分岐路，
知更相逢何岁年。〈章武怀念王氏〉
〈附〉
李助为章武赋
〈章武与道友陇西李助话其事，助亦感而赋诗。〉
石沈辽海阔，
剑别楚天长。
会合知无日，
离心满夕阳。
I’m unclear on the timing of the penultimate poem: was it composed the morning the Wang Woman disappeared, when he told his companion of the road the story, or some time in between? Emotionally, it can be read fit any of those times, and my interpretation splits the difference and words it as the last. “To return west” is a euphemism for “to die,” but it also works literally: all of China’s rivers flow east into the Pacific.
---L.
Zhangwu Reminisces about the Wang Woman
The waters do not go back west, the moon is briefly full—
This makes a person melancholy beside an ancient city.
I’m bleak: tomorrow we’ll split up by a fork in the road.
I know the hour we shall meet—but in what year or age?
Appendix
Composed by Li Zhu for Zhangwu
When Zhangwu related this incident to his traveling companion Li Zhu, Zhu was also moved and composed a poem.
Stones sink—the distant sea is broad.
Swords part—the clear sky is wide.
You’ll meet, I know, without the sun:
Divided hearts are full of sunset.
水不西归月暂圆，
令人惆怅古城边。
萧条明早分岐路，
知更相逢何岁年。〈章武怀念王氏〉
〈附〉
李助为章武赋
〈章武与道友陇西李助话其事，助亦感而赋诗。〉
石沈辽海阔，
剑别楚天长。
会合知无日，
离心满夕阳。
I’m unclear on the timing of the penultimate poem: was it composed the morning the Wang Woman disappeared, when he told his companion of the road the story, or some time in between? Emotionally, it can be read fit any of those times, and my interpretation splits the difference and words it as the last. “To return west” is a euphemism for “to die,” but it also works literally: all of China’s rivers flow east into the Pacific.
---L.