寻隐者不遇尋隱者不遇
Sōng xià松下wèn问tóng zǐ童子，
yán言shī师cǎi采yào药qù去。
zhǐ只zài cǐ在此shān山zhōng中，
yún云shēn深bù zhī不知chǔ处。
Line by line
- 松下问童子，松下問童子， Beneath the pine I question the boy;
- 言师采药去。言師采藥去。 he says his master has gone to gather herbs —
- 只在此山中， somewhere on this very mountain,
- 云深不知处。雲深不知處。 but the clouds are deep; he knows not where.
The poet & the story
Jia Dao (779–843) was a former monk famous for agonising over single words — the origin of the Chinese term 推敲 (“to deliberate”). This deceptively plain quatrain is built entirely from the boy’s answers; the questions are left for the reader to supply.
Interpretation
Beneath a pine the poet asks a boy after his master. “He has gone to gather herbs,” the boy says; “only somewhere on this mountain — but the clouds are deep, and I cannot tell where.” The recluse never appears, and that absence, wrapped in mist, is the whole point.