Farewell to Meng Hao-jan at Yellow Crane Tower

               In April
the air thick
with the smoky fragrance
            of wet blossoms
my friend and I exchange goodbyes
          at Yellow Crane Tower
as he departs
                   downriver
                                east to Yang-chou.

His lone sail
           fades from sight
                   until a shadowy flicker
it sinks into the sky’s
                               limitless blue.

Then I see only
                                  the great Yangtze
            pouring
                         through Heaven’s gates.



–Translated by Stanton Hager,
in Huangshan Poems from the T’ang Dynasty