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Farewell to Wang the Eleventh on His Southern Journey

By Liu Changqing Tang Dynasty

English Poetic Translation

I watch you vanish where the mist and waters swell,
And wipe the blinding tears that soak my scarf farewell.
A soaring bird is swallowed in the empty skies;
The lonely mountains watch me with indifferent eyes.
A single sail glides down the long and distant stream;
The setting sun makes all the lakes a vernal dream.
Who sees me now upon the island shore forlorn,
Where white duckweeds lament the heartbreak of the morn?

Classical Chinese & Pinyin

望君煙水闊，揮手淚霑巾。
飛鳥沒何處，青山空向人。
長江一帆遠，落日五湖春。
誰見汀洲上，相思愁白蘋。

wàng jūn yān shuǐ kuò, huī shǒu lèi zhān jīn.
fēi niǎo mò hé chù, qīng shān kōng xiàng rén.
cháng jiāng yì fān yuǎn, luò rì wǔ hú chūn.
shuí jiàn tīng zhōu shàng, xiāng sī chóu bái píng.

Philological Direct Translation

Gazing at you, smoke and water are vast, waving hands, tears wet kerchiefs.
Flying birds sink into what place, green mountains empty face men.
Long river, one sail is distant, setting sun, Five Lakes are spring.
Who sees on the islet, mutual longing grieves white duckweed.

Scholarly Exegesis & Cultural Commentary

I. Formal Poetic Architecture & Meter

This masterpiece is composed as a Five-Character Regulated Verse, adhering strictly to the tonal meter and strict parallel constraints of high Tang prosody. The poem utilizes a single Level Tone rhyme scheme, revolving around the ancient rhyme category for the character corresponding to kerchief and spring. The central couplets exhibit quintessential antithetical craftsmanship, balancing dynamic spatial movement against static natural landscapes, thereby anchoring the emotional cadence of parting grief within expansive topography.

II. Historical Chronology & Existential Impulse

Created during the mid-Tang Dynasty, the poem reflects the pervasive atmosphere of parting and bureaucratic dislocation that defined the era following internal rebellions. Liu Changqing, renowned for his melancholic exile poetry and his administrative demotions across southern borderlands, imbues this farewell with a profound sense of temporal transience and isolation. The historical landscape is dominated by the vast river networks of the south, where friends and officials were frequently separated by perilous travel and uncertain imperial appointments.

III. Line-by-Line Exegesis & Allusion Decoding

The poem traces an emotional arc from immediate physical grief to an expansive, solitary landscape projection.

Lines 1-2 (Opening Couplet): Line 1 ("Gazing at you, smoke and water are vast") establishes the visual barrier of mist and water, while Line 2 ("waving hands, tears wet kerchiefs") captures the visceral, unadorned gesture of human sorrow.
Lines 3-4 (First Antithetical Turn): Line 3 ("A soaring bird is swallowed in the empty skies") introduces the motif of sudden disappearance, mirrored by Line 4 ("The lonely mountains watch me with indifferent eyes"), where the ancient mountains remain impassive to human suffering.
Lines 5-6 (Second Antithetical Turn / Climax): Line 5 ("A single sail glides down the long and distant stream") shifts focus to the receding boat, while Line 6 ("The setting sun makes all the lakes a vernal dream") juxtaposes the melancholy dusk with the vivid renewal of spring.
Closing Lines (Resolving Couplet): The concluding couplet ("Who sees me now upon the island shore forlorn / Where white duckweeds lament the heartbreak of the morn") dissolves the speaker into the natural flora, projecting human longing onto the desolate river duckweed.

IV. Cultural Symbolism & Key Metaphors

The imagery in this farewell verse draws heavily upon classical Chinese poetic traditions of exile and parting.

Mist and Water: These elements symbolize the obscure, untethered nature of travel in the vast southern riverlands, representing both physical distance and emotional obfuscation.
Duckweed: A traditional emblem of rootlessness and drifting exile, the white duckweed mirrors the scholar separated from his kindred spirits and courtly duties.

V. Philosophical Core & Global Resonance

The philosophical foundation of the poem rests upon a synthesis of Daoist detachment from worldly flux and Confucian sorrow over human separation. Liu Changqing does not rail against fate; instead, he allows human grief to merge seamlessly into the indifferent, eternal cycles of nature. This quiet resignation transcends its specific mid-Tang context, speaking universally to the human condition of solitude, farewell, and the quiet dignity found in bearing distance and loss.