Birds vanish into Chu’s vast air—
You’ll chase the jade clouds home, alone there.
The broken mirror hastens your ride,
While dying sun greets mountains you’ve eyed.
Your poems float on running streams,
Your dreams dissolve in petals’ seams.
If you send word of missing days,
This sorrowed face will shine with rays.
Original Poem
「送夏侯审校书东归」
钱起
楚乡飞鸟没，独与碧云还。
破镜催归客，残阳见旧山。
诗成流水上，梦尽落花间。
傥寄相思字，愁人定解颜。
Interpretation
This farewell poem was composed by Qian Qi during the Dali era (766 - 779) of the Tang Dynasty for his friend Xiahou Shen. Xiahou, who once served as a Collator in the Imperial Library, shared a profound friendship with the poet. As Xiahou departed for his eastern homeland, Qian composed this work to express their bond. Through depicting landscapes along his friend's journey and post-separation longing conveyed in verse and dreams, the poem reveals deep affection with lingering resonance that moves readers profoundly.
First Couplet: "楚乡飞鸟没，独与碧云还。"
Chǔ xiāng fēi niǎo mò, dú yǔ bì yún huán.
Birds vanish into Chu's distant skies—
Alone, I return with azure clouds.
The opening couplet employs scenery to evoke emotion. "Chu's land" situates the geography, while "vanishing birds" symbolize inevitable parting. "Returning with azure clouds" transforms the concrete into the abstract, subtly conveying the poet's solitude as he watches his friend depart.
Second Couplet: "破镜催归客，残阳见旧山。"
Pò jìng cuī guī kè, cán yáng jiàn jiù shān.
The broken mirror hastens the wanderer home;
In fading light, old mountain forms reappear.
Transitioning to the friend's journey, this couplet weaves classical allusions. The "broken mirror"典故 (alludes to fragmented mirrors symbolizing separation and reunion), invoking thoughts of longing and homecoming. "Fading light" and "old mountains" paint a twilight scene both desolate and familiar along the return path.
Third Couplet: "诗成流水上，梦尽落花间。"
Shī chéng liú shuǐ shàng, mèng jìn luò huā jiān.
My verses float upon flowing streams,
My dreams dissolve amid falling blossoms.
Shifting inward, this couplet captures the poet's post-separation state. "Flowing streams" and "falling blossoms"—classic metaphors for transience and parting—intensify the poem's emotional texture. The perfectly balanced parallelism merges scene and sentiment, forming the emotional climax.
Fourth Couplet: "傥寄相思字，愁人定解颜。"
Tǎng jì xiāng sī zì, chóu rén dìng jiě yán.
Should you send words of longing my way,
This sorrowful face would surely brighten.
The finale articulates their enduring connection, hoping correspondence might soothe separation's ache. By self-identifying as the "sorrowful one," the poet underscores his reluctance to part, revealing affection that lingers beyond farewell.
Holistic Appreciation
This meticulously crafted five-character regulated verse weaves tender emotion through disciplined form. The poet channels parting sorrow through immediate scenery: the opening couplet captures the act of watching a friend depart, the middle couplets depict the journey’s vistas and post-farewell solitude, while the closing lines express hope for future correspondence. Transitions flow organically, blending scene and sentiment. The standout couplet—"Poems complete on flowing water, / Dreams exhausted among falling blossoms"—marries striking imagery with profound sincerity, interlacing creative reality with dreamt yearning. Between verse and dream, flowing streams and scattered petals, a cyclical意境 emerges, deepening the poignancy of separation.
Artistic Merits
- Precise Parallelism, Tight Structure: The symmetrical couplet ("Poems…Dreams…") balances formal rigor with lyrical harmony, marking the poem’s artistic zenith.
- Scene-Emotion Resonance: From "birds vanishing" to "dreams in petals", feelings deepen layer by layer, leaving lasting aftertaste.
- Seamless Allusion: The "shattered mirror"典故 is woven with subtle gravity, avoiding pedantry.
- Fresh Diction, Musical Rhythm: Concise yet melodious language, with expansive cadence, epitomizes mid-Tang regulated verse.
Insights
The poem teaches that moving verse lies not in grand gestures but in authentic emotion fused with apt expression. In just a few lines, the poet unfolds layered farewell sorrow, desolate return-journey scenery, and the ache of dreamt remembrance. The pairing of "poem" and "dream" transcends artistic form—it symbolizes emotional sublimation. This "dream-supplemented farewell" technique, rare in parting poetry across eras, reminds us that even in separation, heart-to-heart echoes can crystallize into enduring words.
About the Poet
Qian Qi (钱起, c. 722-780), a native of Huzhou, Zhejiang, was the foremost of the "Ten Talents of the Dali Era" in mid-Tang poetry. His poetic style, inheriting Wang Wei's legacy, excelled particularly in regulated verse (五律), characterized by its ethereal elegance. Yan Yu praised his work as "innovative in form," reflecting the Dali period's transition from the High Tang's naturalism to refined craftsmanship.
