Takashima & the Yilin · A short read
Robes held up, the traveller steps into deep water.
Someone lifts their clothing out of the water and starts wading. The channels run deep. Halfway through this short poem, a boatman appears, and the traveller gets across without mishap.
Kun to Cui, 2 to 45
褰衣涉河，澗流浚多。賴遇舟子，濟脫無他。
Lifting the robe, wading across the river; the streams run deep. Thanks to meeting a boatman, the crossing ends without mishap.
English translation: DaYan. 褰衣 means lifting the clothing, as someone might do to keep it clear of the water. 舟子 is a boatman. The verse names neither person and gives no destination.
A journey you can feel in your legs
The first action is small and practical: hold the fabric up. It puts the traveller at the water’s edge before we know how deep the crossing will be. Then the next phrase gives us the deep-running streams.
賴遇, “thanks to meeting”, introduces the help. We are not told whether the traveller called out, whether the boatman was already crossing, or how either person got home. The encounter takes only four characters; the final four take us to safety.
Beside the stony road
Elsewhere in the Yilin, a traveller struggles with a stony slope and cannot make an interpreter understand. There, the person meant to help cannot get the message through. Here, a boatman arrives with the skill the traveller needs.
Read the two scenes in succession. You meet people who need help before you learn whether they receive it. The hopeful ending of Kun to Cui rests on that meeting at the river, with the clothing still held above the water.
Sources & translation
Jiaoshi Yilin, Kun to Cui (坤之萃), received text via Chinese Text Project. English translation and reading notes: DaYan.
Chinese Text Project: Jiaoshi Yilin ↗