— Li Bai
My friend has left the west where the Yellow Crane towers
For River Town green with willows and red with flowers.
His lessening sail is lost in the boundless blue sky,
Where I see but the endless River rolling by.
Note
Li Bai (701–762 CE) was one of China’s greatest romantic poets of the Tang Dynasty, celebrated for his vivid imagination, love of nature, wine, and deep emotional bonds with friends. His poetry often blends grand landscapes with personal feeling, creating moments of timeless beauty and quiet melancholy.
His poem “Farewell to Meng Haoran at Yellow Crane Tower” is one of the most famous farewell poems in Chinese literature. It captures the moment Li Bai sees off his close friend and fellow poet Meng Haoran, who is departing from Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan to travel eastward to Yangzhou – a prosperous, cultured city famed for its spring beauty.
The journey begins in “the misty, flowery third month” (early spring), a season of blossoms and soft rain that evokes both joy and transience. As Meng’s boat sails away, Li Bai watches until the “lonely sail’s distant silhouette vanishes into the blue sky.” In the end, only the Yangtze River flows endlessly toward the horizon – a powerful image of separation, continuity, and the vastness of space and time.
Though simple in language, the poem conveys profound emotion through absence: the friend is gone, but the river remains, flowing eternally. It reflects Li Bai’s signature blend of spontaneity, visual grandeur, and understated sorrow.
黄鹤楼送孟浩然之广陵
— 李白
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。
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