by
Poet's Day

Floating Across the Miles

Floating Across the Miles
by
Poet's Day

This week’s poem is chosen for Chinese New Year and is called “Farewell to a Friend” by Li Bai.

Here we part with each other,
And you set out like a lonesome wisp of grass,
Floating across the miles, farther and farther away.

Li Bai (701—762)

Poem 358. 送友人, 李白 (Farewell to a Friend)

Chinese

青山橫北郭 , 白水遶東城
此地一為別, 孤蓬萬里征
浮雲遊子意, 落日故人情
揮手自茲去, 蕭簫斑馬鳴

English

Green hills skirt the northern border,
White waters gird the eastern town;
Here we part with each other,
And you set out like a lonesome wisp of grass,
Floating across the miles, farther and farther away.
You’ve longed to travel like roaming clouds,
But our friendship, unwilling to wane as the sun is to set,
Let it be here to stay.
As we wave each other good-bye,
Our horses neigh, as if for us they sigh.

Li Bai is the second Chinese poet I have covered (the first was Su Tung-Po in February 2023) but he is perhaps more famous in his native land, having been credited with over 1,000 poems. Indeed, his poetry is counted one of the “Three Wonders” along with Pei Min’s swordsmanship and Zhang Xu’s calligraphy, according to Wikipedia.

This poem is about parting from a friend who is travelling afar and is not expected to return. We see the two of them separating in the shadow of the green hills by a torrent of water, and the poet watching his friend setting forth alone, but travelling as he has always wanted to. The poet wishes their friendship to remain strong despite the distance between them. As they bid each other farewell, the horses seem to catch the mood too.

I like it because it is an evocation of friendship and parting, and in a few short lines, it expresses a lot: we see the town with the hills nearby and the river in full spate, we can imagine the friend’s solitary journeying hither and thither from the description, “like a lonesome wisp of grass, floating across the miles” and the strength of their friendship, “unwilling to wane as the sun is to set.”

There are several translations of this poem into English and the performances on YouTube reflect this fact. Simon Zonenblick’s is good, and Manuel do Río’s is followed by an interesting analysis.