黄鹤楼送孟浩然之广陵黃鶴樓送孟浩然之廣陵
gù rén故人xī西cí辞Huáng hè Lóu黄鹤楼，
yān huā烟花Sān yuè三月xià下Yáng zhōu扬州。
gū孤fān帆yuǎn远yǐng影bì kōng碧空jǐn尽，
wéi唯jiàn cháng见长jiāng江tiān jì天际liú流。
Line by line
- 故人西辞黄鹤楼，故人西辭黃鶴樓， My old friend takes leave at Yellow Crane Tower,
- 烟花三月下扬州。煙花三月下揚州。 sailing to Yangzhou in the blossom-mist of March.
- 孤帆远影碧空尽，孤帆遠影碧空盡， His lone sail, a distant shadow, fades into blue sky;
- 唯见长江天际流。唯見長江天際流。 only the long river is left, flowing to the edge of heaven.
The poet & the story
In 730 Li Bai saw his older friend and idol Meng Haoran off at Yellow Crane Tower in present-day Wuhan, bound downriver for Yangzhou (Guangling). The tower, the “misty blossoms of the third month” and the lone sail made this the model farewell poem — Chinese still call March trips to the south 烟花三月.
Interpretation
His old friend leaves Yellow Crane Tower in the west and sails down to Yangzhou through the blossom-mist of late spring. The lone sail shrinks to a shadow, then dissolves into blue sky — and all that is left is the Yangtze flowing to the horizon. Li Bai never says “I miss you”; he just keeps watching long after the boat is gone, and the river says the rest.