Reply to Wang Anshi,Former Prime Minister
- Poetry of Su Shi

《次荆公韵》

English Rendering

Riding an ass,I come from afar to visit you,

Still imagining you as healthy as I knew.

You advise me to buy a house at your next gate,

I'd like to follow you,but it is ten years late.

Reply to Wang Anshi,Former Prime Minister by Su Shi
Reply to Wang Anshi,Former Prime Minister by Su Shi

Original Text (中文原文)

骑驴渺渺入荒陂,想见先生未病时。

劝我试求三亩宅,从公已觉十年迟。

Analysis & Context

This is a set of four seven-character quatrains composed in the autumn of the 7th year of the Yuanfeng reign (1084) by Su Shi, a preeminent man of letters of the Northern Song Dynasty. Crafted when Su Shi passed through Jinling on his way to Ruzhou, these poems were written as responsory verses exchanged with Wang Anshi, who had retired to this place. Though the two once stood opposed to each other due to divergent political views, they set aside their differences in their later years and achieved a profound intellectual and poetic rapport through literary exchanges during this meeting.

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