Farewell to Dong Da / Gao Shi, 別董大二首一

Gao Shi's farewell poem: Text, Pinyin, and Translation

Gao Shi's farewell poem: Text, Pinyin, and Translation with original text, pinyin, a literal rendering, a readable translation, source location, key terms, and a careful modern reading.

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Gao Shi farewell poem Bie Dong Da original Chinese pinyin translation meaning

Farewell to Dong Da, Gao Shi, 別董大二首一: read "千里黃雲白日曛，北風吹雁雪紛紛。莫愁前路無知己，天下誰人不識君。" before the English explanation.

Original text

千里黃雲白日曛，北風吹雁雪紛紛。莫愁前路無知己，天下誰人不識君。

Qian li huang yun bai ri xun, bei feng chui yan xue fen fen. Mo chou qian lu wu zhi ji, tian xia shui ren bu shi jun.

Literal layer

For a thousand li, yellow clouds dim the white sun; the north wind blows wild geese through falling snow. Do not worry that the road ahead has no one who knows you; under heaven, who does not know you?

Readable layer

Gao Shi's farewell poem turns a bleak northern departure into encouragement: the weather is harsh, but the friend should not mistake leaving for being unknown.

Poem Written after Rain from The Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access collection — **Poem Written after Rain; Ju Jie; Bequest of John M. Crawford Jr., 1988; The Metropolitan Museum of Art.**Poem Written after Rain is used as a public-domain poem or landscape surface for line-order reading on Gao Shi's farewell poem. The fit is semantic: the page asks readers to inspect Gao Shi, 別董大二首一 and the term huang yun, while the image remains illustrative rather than proof of the exact manuscript, author portrait, or historical scene.

Reader focus

What this page helps you decide

Gao Shi's Farewell to Dong Da is a farewell poem that refuses to let parting become despair. The first couplet gives the departing friend a harsh road: yellow clouds dim the sun, the north wind blows geese, and snow falls thickly. The second couplet then turns sharply into reassurance. Do not worry that no one ahead will know you, the speaker says; under heaven, who does not know you? The poem's comfort works because it does not deny the bleak scene.

Watch huang yun, bei feng, zhi ji; these terms decide where the literal layer and the readable layer separate.
Compare this page with Wang Wei's Parting and Cen Shen's frontier snow before treating the last line as a generic confidence quote.

The Poem Before Paraphrase

This block uses Farewell to Dong Da, Gao Shi, 別董大二首一 as the anchor, with "千里黃雲白日曛，北風吹雁雪紛紛。莫愁前路無知己，天下誰人不識..." kept in front of the explanation.

Full Text: The page uses the first poem of Bie Dong Da because its four-line structure is complete: weather first, reassurance second. The poem does not need a long narrative. It needs the contrast between a hard northern road and the speaker's confidence in the friend's reputation.

Bleak Opening: Qian li huang yun bai ri xun makes the sky feel wide and dim. Yellow clouds cover a thousand li and darken the white sun. The line gives the farewell a large, dust-colored atmosphere instead of an intimate indoor scene.

Wind And Geese: The north wind and wild geese intensify the departure. Geese often carry seasonal and travel associations, but here they are blown through snow. The weather is not merely decorative. It creates the emotional pressure that the second couplet must answer.

Images, Sound, And Emotional Turn

Do Not Worry: Mo chou changes the poem's direction. The speaker directly addresses the friend and refuses the fear of future loneliness. The road ahead may look severe, but the poem insists that the friend's worth will not disappear when he leaves this place.

Knowing Friend: Zhi ji means someone who knows or understands you. The line qian lu wu zhi ji names the fear beneath farewell: not only travel, but entering a future where no one recognizes your value. The poem answers that fear by widening recognition to all under heaven.

Fame And Consolation: Tian xia shui ren bu shi jun can sound boastful if isolated. In context it is consolation. The speaker does not say the road is easy; he says the friend is not obscure. Reputation, talent, and recognition become a form of courage for departure.

Keep the term set visible here: huang yun, bei feng, zhi ji. The reading changes if one of these terms is translated too smoothly.

Translation Choices To Keep Visible

Why The Comfort Works: The comfort works because it is addressed to a named departing person, not to an anonymous audience. The poem's confidence is relational. The speaker knows Dong Da well enough to answer the fear of being unknown. That keeps the last line warm rather than merely proud.

Gao Shi's farewell poem Translation Limit: This working translation keeps zhi ji as someone who knows you, not just friend, because the poem's reassurance is about being recognized. It also keeps the weather plain. If the English turns the first couplet too pretty, the emotional turn loses force.

Gao Shi's farewell poem Reading Payoff: This page differs from Wang Wei's Parting because Gao Shi speaks direct encouragement, while Wang Wei lets farewell remain restrained. It differs from Cen Shen's frontier snow because the snow here frames personal reassurance rather than camp ceremony. The article gives readers a source-based way to quote the famous last line without losing the bleak road that makes it generous.

The reading should end in one practical move: Compare this page with Wang Wei's Parting and Cen Shen's frontier snow before treating the last line as a generic confidence quote.

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