You have left me behind, old friend, at the Yellow Crane Terrace,
On your way to visit Yangzhou in the misty month of flowers;
Your sail, a single shadow, becomes one with the blue sky,
Till now I see only the river, on its way to heaven.
故人西辞黄鹤楼，烟花三月下扬州。
孤帆远影碧空尽，唯见长江天际流。
Seven-character-quatrain
In the 13th year of Emperor Xuanzong's Kaiyuan era (725 AD), Li Bai departed from Sichuan through the Three Gorges and resided in Anlu, Hubei for ten years, where he befriended Meng Haoran, who lived in seclusion at Deer Gate Mountain in Xiangyang. This poem was composed when Li Bai bid farewell to Meng Haoran at Yellow Crane Tower as his friend journeyed eastward to Yangzhou.
Classical Chinese poetry thrives on Concision and Ambiguity. Without tense or number, the words create a timeless space where the reader becomes the co-creator of the poem's meaning.
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