English Rendering
Letters can't pass over thousands of mountains and streams.
How much I thank you for you have sent me your dreams.
I'm sorry that in illness I can't tell old friends from new;
I dream of indifferent people, but not you.
Dream and No Dream
- Poetry of Yuan Zhen
《酬乐天频梦微之》
Original Text (中文原文)
山水万重书断绝，念君怜我梦相闻。
我今因病魂颠倒，唯梦闲人不梦君。
Analysis & Context
Composed in 817 CE during Emperor Xianzong's Yuanhe era, this work responds to Bai Juyi's poem sent while both poets endured political exile—Yuan Zhen to Tongzhou, Bai Juyi to Jiangzhou. Separated by vast distances and severed communication, they turned to poetry as lifelines. Yuan Zhen's reply not only reciprocates his friend's longing but also voices his own suffering—illness, displacement, and quiet resilience.
Reader's Companion
The Essence of the Verse
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.
Reading Between the Lines
Look for Contrasts: light and shadow, movement and stillness. Don't just translate the words; feel the Yijing (artistic conception) that lingers long after the last character.
- Parting Again with Bai Juyi
- Dream and No Dream
- Chrysanthemums
- On Hearing the News that My Friend Bai Juyi Is Relegated to Jiujiang
- Waiting for the moonshine at the West Chamber
- After you came to Northern Sea
- The Summit Temple
- <Prelude to Water Melody> Sent to Ziyou on Mid-autumn Festival
- Invitation to Wine
- Question and Answer in the Mountains
- Cold sheet
- Coming Home ( Returning Home )
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