Evening Rain, A Farewell to Li Zhou - Wei Yingwu
/赋得暮雨送李胄 - 韦应物/
Parting Beneath Twilight Showers
赋得暮雨送李胄
Evening Rain, A Farewell to Li Zhou
楚江微雨里
In the faint drizzle over the Chu River,
建业暮钟时
When the dusk bells toll in Jianye,
漠漠帆来重
Misty sails appear one after another,
冥冥鸟去迟
While distant birds depart ever so slowly.
海门深不见
The ocean gate lies too vast to glimpse,
浦树远难知
And riverside trees fade beyond recognition.
相送情无限
Our farewell brims with boundless emotion,
沾襟比散丝
My tears, like unraveling silk, soak my sleeves.
In “Evening Rain, A Farewell to Li Zhou,” Wei Yingwu conjures a twilight setting rich with subtle imagery. The poem opens amid the light rain of Chu River, quietly guiding readers toward a somber and reflective mood. The mention of the evening bells in Jianye, a historical name for modern-day Nanjing, adds a note of gentle melancholy, suggesting that the day—and an era—are winding down.
Sails arriving ‘one after another’ underscore the ongoing flow of life and journeys, while the lingering flight of distant birds evokes a sense of reluctant departure. The obscured ocean gate and hazy riverside trees highlight the uncertainty of life’s horizon, implying that neither poet nor friend can fully see what lies ahead.
Amid this atmospheric backdrop, the act of bidding farewell becomes emotionally charged. Wei Yingwu describes the farewell as containing “boundless emotion,” capturing the bittersweet fusion of friendship, memory, and the knowledge that paths may diverge indefinitely. The final image, comparing tears to threads of silk, intensifies this feeling of unraveling ties—still delicate, yet inevitably parting.
Though brief, the poem encapsulates a deep emotional core: the fragile link between friends, the transience of each meeting, and the serene yet heart-tugging nature of parting in the evening rain. Its understated tone and layered setting reflect a hallmark of Tang poetry: weaving human sentiment seamlessly into images of the natural world and the subtle rhythms of daily life. These lines leave us with a universal reminder: every goodbye carries the weight of an unknown future, even as it reaffirms the enduring beauty of shared moments.
Key points
• Gentle imagery can convey profound emotion in a brief space.
• Farewells often fuse tranquility with a sense of poignant uncertainty.
• Tang poetry’s hallmark lies in blending human sentiment with atmospheric natural scenes.
