Reeds blanket the river isle,
Cold sands trace shallow streams.
Twenty years—I pass South Tower again.
My boat at willow's root still sways—
How many days till Mid-Autumn?
At Yellow Crane's broken bluff,
Do old friends still remain?
These ancient hills—all steeped in fresh sorrow.
I'd buy osmanthus, share wine—
But never like our youth's adventures.
Original Poem
「唐多令 · 芦叶满汀洲」
芦叶满汀洲，寒沙带浅流。
二十年重过南楼。柳下系船犹未稳，能几日，又中秋。黄鹤断矶头，故人今在否？旧江山浑是新愁。
刘过
欲买桂花同载酒，终不似，少年游。
Interpretation
This renowned work was composed by Liu Guo during his revisit to Anyuan Tower (also known as South Tower) in Wuchang. Situated on Huanghe Mountain in modern Hubei, Anyuan Tower served as a strategic military base during the Southern Song's resistance against the Jin dynasty. Twenty years after his youthful revelries here, Liu returns to find the landscape unchanged but human connections severed—friends scattered, the nation in turmoil. Through autumn scenery and introspective lament, the poem distills life's transience, national grief, vanished youth, and lost companionship. Its iconic line—"I'd buy osmanthus and wine for old-time cheer, / yet never taste that carefree spirit of my youth"—has resonated for centuries as the ultimate expression of temporal irrevocability.
First Stanza: "芦叶满汀洲，寒沙带浅流。"
Lú yè mǎn tīng zhōu, hán shā dài qiǎn liú.
Reeds blanket sandbars,
chill sands fringe shallow streams.
These opening lines paint a desolate autumn canvas. "Reeds" and "chill sands" embody seasonal decay, while "shallow streams" suggest diminished vitality. The imagery—sparse yet tactile—sets a tone of solitary melancholy.
"二十年重过南楼。"
Èr shí nián chóng guò nán lóu.
Twenty years later,
I return to South Tower.
A temporal earthquake in seven characters. The unchanged tower amplifies human impermanence, its silent stones bearing witness to two decades of personal and national transformation.
"柳下系船犹未稳，能几日，又中秋。"
Liǔ xià xì chuán yóu wèi wěn, néng jǐ rì, yòu zhōng qiū.
My boat moored beneath willows—
still unsteadied—
how few days remain
before Mid-Autumn's moon?
The "unsteadied boat" becomes a metaphor for existential precariousness. The approaching Mid-Autumn Festival—traditionally a reunion occasion—heightens the poet's isolation, compressing time's passage into a countdown to melancholy.
Second Stanza: "黄鹤断矶头，故人今在否？"
Huáng hè duàn jī tóu, gù rén jīn zài fǒu?
At Yellow Crane's broken bluff—
do old friends still breathe?
The "broken bluff" symbolizes fractured history and relationships. The unanswered question hangs like mist over the Yangtze—a silent elegy for vanished companions.
"旧江山浑是新愁。"
Jiù jiāng shān hún shì xīn chóu.
These timeless hills and rivers
yet overflow with fresh sorrows.
A masterstroke of paradox. The enduring landscape ("timeless hills") contrasts with accumulating grief ("fresh sorrows"), mapping national decline onto personal anguish.
"欲买桂花同载酒，终不似，少年游。"
Yù mǎi guì huā tóng zài jiǔ, zhōng bù sì, shào nián yóu.
I'd buy osmanthus and wine
for old-time cheer—
yet never taste that carefree spirit
of my youth.
The poem's crystalline climax. "Osmanthus and wine" represent reconstructed nostalgia, but "never taste" delivers the crushing truth: time's alchemy cannot recreate the essence of youth. The line transforms personal lament into universal elegy.
Holistic Appreciation
The poem constructs a double helix of spatial and temporal mourning. The first stanza's reeds, sands, and moored boat compose a still-life of abandonment, while the "twenty years" refrain echoes like a temple bell across ruined time. Mid-Autumn's impending moon—symbol of fullness—becomes ironic counterpoint to the poet's hollowed present.
The second stanza fractures this stillness with urgent questions ("do old friends still breathe?") and the shattering realization of "fresh sorrows" in old landscapes. The iconic finale transcends autobiography, its "never taste" becoming every human's reckoning with time's one-way current. Liu's genius lies in making South Tower both concrete location and metaphysical hourglass—each stone counting grains of vanished youth.
Artistic Merits
- Sensory minimalism
Reeds, sands, and moonlight form an austere palette where sparse imagery amplifies emotional resonance. - Temporal architecture
The juxtaposition of "twenty years" with "few days before Mid-Autumn" creates vertiginous time compression. - Geological metaphor
The "broken bluff" operates as both physical landmark and symbol of fractured history. - Gastronomic allegory
"Osmanthus and wine" transform culinary elements into vessels of irretrievable joy.
Insights
Liu's poem reveals nostalgia as double-edged sword—the very act of revisiting ("I return to South Tower") inevitably corrupts the memory it seeks to preserve. The work suggests that true maturity lies not in recreating youth's pleasures but in honoring its irreplicable spirit.
For contemporary readers, the poem models how to navigate temporal grief: we moor our "unsteadied boats" at memory's shore, not to relive what was, but to acknowledge what endures—the courage to face Mid-Autumn moons alone, yet still raise a cup to vanished friends beneath the same timeless rivers and hills.
The immortal line "never taste that carefree spirit" ultimately liberates us: by naming youth's irrecoverability, it frees us to savor present moments unburdened by comparison. Liu teaches that wisdom begins when we stop trying to brew yesterday's wine.
About the Poet
Liu Guo (刘过 1154 - 1206), a native of Taihe in Jiangxi, was a ci poet of the Bold and Unconstrained School (haofang pai) during the Southern Song Dynasty. Though he remained a commoner all his life, wandering the rivers and lakes, he associated with literary giants like Lu You and Xin Qiji. His ci poetry is impassioned and heroic, and his verse is vigorous and forceful. Stylistically close to Xin Qiji but even more unrestrained, Liu Guo became a central figure among Xin’s poetic followers.
