A Lament
- Poetry of Meng Jiao

This is an archaizing or "old-style" lament by the Mid-Tang poet Meng Jiao, also titled An Olden Lament (Gu Yuan). Meng Jiao’s life was marked by poverty and repeated failure in the imperial examinations; he did not attain the jinshi degree until the age of forty-six and later suffered the loss of a son. His poetry frequently dwells on hardship, loneliness, and the fickleness of the world. Renowned for his "bitter chanting" (kuyin)—a style of intense, painstaking composition—he is often paired with Jia Dao under the critical label "Meng’s chill, Jia’s gauntness" (Jiao han Dao shou). A man of solitary integrity and deep sincerity, his verses often reveal an almost obsessive intensity of emotion.

The poem adopts a female persona to express the anguish of longing, yet it abandons the conventional tropes of boudoir laments, such as the "lonely empty room" or "tear-filled eyes."