Original text:
I have been driving around for nine days and have only one day of leisure, but I have not found you and returned in vain. Strangely enough, the poems and thoughts are clear to the bones. The cold current and snow-covered mountains are facing the door.
Translation:
It was a leisurely day, and on the Double Ninth Festival, I galloped forward to visit you, but I didn’t meet you and had to rush in vain. No wonder your poems are so elegant and profoundly thoughtful. It turns out that your door is facing the vast cold current and the snow-covered mountains.
Notes
1. Holidays: holidays. Wang Shiyu: Unknown, probably a fellow poet.
2. Nine days of driving: busy for nine days. A day off: a day off. In the Tang Dynasty, officials had one day off every ten days.
3. Guilai: no wonder, no wonder. Come, a particle.
4. Cold current: refers to mountain streams.
Source: "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" - Wei Yingwu of the Tang Dynasty
Extended information
Creative background
Wei Yingwu was a Sanwei Lang when he was young As a close attendant of Xuanzong, he went in and out of the palace and traveled with his retinue. Later, he was the governor of Chuzhou and Jiangzhou, Zuosi Langzhong, and the governor of Suzhou. In his later life, he was called Wei Jiangzhou, Wei Zuosi or Wei Suzhou. His poems are famous for describing pastoral scenery, with simple language. Together with Wang Wei, Meng Haoran and Liu Zongyuan, he is also known as "Wang Meng Wei Liu".
In the Tang Dynasty, officials took one day off every ten days. Hu Sansheng noted in "Tongjian·Tang Ji": "On the third tenth day of the first month, when there is a sentence, people will straighten their heads and rest for bathing, which is called ten days off." Ten days are ten days, and each ten days has one day off. Wei Yingwu made this work when he visited his colleague Wang Shiyu on his vacation, and happened to be away from home.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Visiting Wang Shiyu on a day off