踽踽獨行

From the Book of Songs:

獨行踽踽，豈無他人？不如我同父 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]

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独行踽踽，岂无他人？不如我同父 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]

From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11^th – 7^th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

Dúxíngjǔjǔ, qǐ wú tārén? Bùrú wǒ tóngfù [Pinyin]

Alone I walk unbefriended;—
Is it because there are no other people? But none are like the sons of one's father.

The current word order was not attested until the early 12^th century.

踽踽獨行

1. to walk alone; to walk all by oneself

   • 太原王生早行，遇一女郎，抱襆獨奔，甚艱于步。急走趁之，乃二八姝麗。心相愛樂，問：「何夙夜踽踽獨行？」 [Literary Chinese, trad.]
     太原王生早行，遇一女郎，抱幞独奔，甚艰于步。急走趁之，乃二八姝丽。心相爱乐，问：「何夙夜踽踽独行？」 [Literary Chinese, simp.]

     From: 1740 CE, Pu Songling, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

     Tàiyuán Wáng shēng zǎoxíng, yù yī nǚláng, bào pú dú bēn, shèn jiān yú bù. Jí zǒu chèn zhī, nǎi èrbā shūlì. Xīn xiāng àilè, wèn: “Hé sùyè jǔjǔdúxíng?” [Pinyin]

     At Taiyuan lived a man whose family name is Wang. One day, he went out at very early morning when he saw a girl ahead holding baggage alone and struggling to walk on. Wang hurried to catch up with her and found that she was a nice-looking girl of about sixteen years old, so he asked her, “Why do you walk alone all night long?”

   • 1937 Autumn, Chiang Yee (蔣彝), The Silent Traveller: A Chinese Artist in Lakeland, titled《湖區畫記》in Chinese, translated by Zhu Fenglian:

     接着我继续踽踽独行，从纪念碑走上左侧的路，经过巴罗湾。平坦的草原上许多乳牛吃着草，其中有一只像是察觉到有陌生人，缓缓向我走來，并发出欢迎之声，或这只是我的想象。 [MSC, simp.]
     接著我繼續踽踽獨行，從紀念碑走上左側的路，經過巴羅灣。平坦的草原上許多乳牛吃著草，其中有一隻像是察覺到有陌生人，緩緩向我走來，並發出歡迎之聲，或這只是我的想象。 [MSC, trad.]

     Jiēzhe wǒ jìxù jǔjǔdúxíng, cóng jìniànbēi zǒushàng zuǒcè de lù, jīngguò Bāluówān. Píngtǎn de cǎoyuán shàng xǔduō rǔniú chī zhe cǎo, qízhōng yǒu yī zhǐ xiàngshì chájiàodào yǒu mòshēngrén, huǎnhuǎn xiàng wǒ zǒulái, bìng fāchū huānyíng zhī shēng, huò zhè zhǐshì wǒ de xiǎngxiàng. [Pinyin]

     Then I walked on alone again, taking the left footpath from the Monument, leading past Barrow Bay. There were many cows chewing grass on the flat meadowland. One of them seemed to sense a stranger, and ambled up to me with a sort of welcoming sound, or so I imagined.