Farewell at Hibiscus Tower: The River at Night

Lines 1–2 · The city held between two horizons

丹陽 begins both lines and lets 城南 and 城北 set the direction each time. In the south 秋海陰 darkens the broad waters. In the north 楚雲深 gives the clouds depth. The two views take their bearings from the same city, so the repeated place-name keeps the dark weather gathered around the farewell.

Lines 3–4 · What remains clear

高樓 gives the goodbye its height. 不能醉 means the speaker cannot become drunk at this occasion. The dash in English opens onto a last line with no finite verb. 寂寂 makes the river intensely still, and 明月心 sets a heart in relation to the bright moon. “A heart like the bright moon” makes that relation explicit while leaving its connection with the river open. Compare the clear ice held inside a vessel in the first poem of the pair. Here the luminous image has the whole dark river beside it.

This seven-character jueju rhymes 陰, 深, and 心. The repeated place-name makes the opening unusually fixed; the verbless final image holds the feeling after the failed intoxication. Modern pinyin is given without a historical tone grid.

Wang Changling's second farewell can be read without forcing the two poems into a minute-by-minute itinerary. The first sends a clear image with the traveler. Here moonlight helps picture the speaker's remaining consciousness. Compare the more actively invented company in Drinking Alone beneath the Moon.