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Tang Dynasty Lüshi Liu Zongyuan

Parting from My Younger Brother Zongyi

別舍弟宗一

Bié shè dì Zōngyī

Two brothers separate after years of displacement. Follow the immense distances, southern rivers, and imagined dreams that give their farewell its weight.

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Read the original and its translation together. Open a line’s word meanings for a closer look.

About the text and pronunciation

The simplified view changes character forms, not the edition. Notes and sources retain the cited text.

The Chinese source is shown in traditional characters by default, with a simplified view available. Pinyin is modern standard Mandarin, a reading aid, not Tang or Song pronunciation.

Word by word, in the order of the line. A gloss is a crib. It is not the translation.

01

零落殘魂倍黯然，

líng luò cán hún bèi àn rán

My battered remnant of a spirit grows darker still;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 零 líng scattered
  2. 落 luò fallen
  3. 殘 cán remaining
  4. 魂 hún soul
  5. 倍 bèi doubly
  6. 黯 àn dark
  7. 然 rán thus
02

雙垂別淚越江邊。

shuāng chuí bié lèi yuè jiāng biān

we both shed parting tears beside the Yue River.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 雙 shuāng both
  2. 垂 chuí let fall
  3. 別 bié parting
  4. 淚 lèi tears
  5. 越 yuè Yue
  6. 江 jiāng river
  7. 邊 biān beside
03

一身去國六千里，

yì shēn qù guó liù qiān lǐ

One body, six thousand li from the capital;

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 一 yì one
  2. 身 shēn body
  3. 去 qù leave
  4. 國 guó capital
  5. 六 liù six
  6. 千 qiān thousand
  7. 里 lǐ li
04

萬死投荒十二年。

wàn sǐ tóu huāng shí èr nián

ten thousand dangers, twelve years cast into the wilds.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 萬 wàn ten thousand
  2. 死 sǐ deaths
  3. 投 tóu cast into
  4. 荒 huāng remote country
  5. 十 shí ten
  6. 二 èr two
  7. 年 nián years
05

桂嶺瘴來雲似墨，

guì lǐng zhàng lái yún sì mò

Miasma comes over Gui Ridge, its clouds like ink;

Word meanings — Line 5
  1. 桂 guì Gui
  2. 嶺 lǐng ridge
  3. 瘴 zhàng miasma
  4. 來 lái comes
  5. 雲 yún clouds
  6. 似 sì like
  7. 墨 mò ink
06

洞庭春盡水如天。

dòng tíng chūn jìn shuǐ rú tiān

spring ends at Dongting, its water like the sky.

Word meanings — Line 6
  1. 洞 dòng Dong
  2. 庭 tíng ting
  3. 春 chūn spring
  4. 盡 jìn ends
  5. 水 shuǐ water
  6. 如 rú like
  7. 天 tiān sky
07

欲知此後相思夢，

yù zhī cǐ hòu xiāng sī mèng

If you would know where my dreams of you will go,

Word meanings — Line 7
  1. 欲 yù wish
  2. 知 zhī know
  3. 此 cǐ this
  4. 後 hòu after
  5. 相 xiāng mutual
  6. 思 sī longing
  7. 夢 mèng dreams
08

長在荊門郢樹煙。

cháng zài jīng mén yǐng shù yān

they will linger in Jingmen, in mist around the trees of Ying.

Word meanings — Line 8
  1. 長 cháng always
  2. 在 zài in
  3. 荊 jīng Jing
  4. 門 mén men
  5. 郢 yǐng Ying
  6. 樹 shù trees
  7. 煙 yān mist

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

零落殘魂倍黯然，

雙垂別淚越江邊。

一身去國六千里，

萬死投荒十二年。

桂嶺瘴來雲似墨，

洞庭春盡水如天。

欲知此後相思夢，

長在荊門郢樹煙。

Translation

My battered remnant of a spirit grows darker still;

we both shed parting tears beside the Yue River.

One body, six thousand li from the capital;

ten thousand dangers, twelve years cast into the wilds.

Miasma comes over Gui Ridge, its clouds like ink;

spring ends at Dongting, its water like the sky.

If you would know where my dreams of you will go,

they will linger in Jingmen, in mist around the trees of Ying.

Try it from memory

After reading, recall the underlined word or phrase in each line. Say its meaning before opening the answer. These prompts use the text edition printed above.

  1. Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?

    零落殘魂倍黯然，

    Pronunciation hint

    hún

    Reveal meaning and translation

    魂 — soul

    My battered remnant of a spirit grows darker still;

  2. Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?

    桂嶺瘴來雲似墨，

    Pronunciation hint

    lái

    Reveal meaning and translation

    來 — comes

    Miasma comes over Gui Ridge, its clouds like ink;

  3. Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?

    長在荊門郢樹煙。

    Pronunciation hint

    mén

    Reveal meaning and translation

    門 — men

    they will linger in Jingmen, in mist around the trees of Ying.

One more question: what changes?

Compare the opening and closing lines. What changes in the scene, the speaker’s attention, or the feeling? Choose a Chinese word as evidence, then compare your reading with the notes. More than one answer may be reasonable.

Line-by-line notes →

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Line-by-line notes

Lines 1–2 · Shared tears

舍弟 is the writer’s own younger brother, referred to with a modest form of address. The selected 殘魂 puts the damage in the speaker’s spirit. The separately transmitted 殘紅 changes that image to fading red, and this translation follows the anthology’s 殘魂. 倍 makes an existing grief grow sharper, while 雙 shows that the tears at the Yue River are shared.

Lines 3–4 · A body against the numbers

去國 means leaving the capital or political center here. 一身 reduces the speaker to one body set against 六千里, a huge distance, and 萬死, repeated mortal danger. The English keeps li as a historical distance unit and renders the latter as “ten thousand dangers.” 十二年 gives that compressed account of hardship a span of time.

Lines 5–6 · Two landscapes

The paired comparisons are 雲似墨 and 水如天. The clouded Gui Ridge closes the view in, while the water at Dongting extends the sky. The two landscapes make the separation imaginable in space. 春盡 adds a season coming to its end.

Lines 7–8 · A journey possible in dreams

欲知 addresses the departing brother directly again. 相思 is longing or remembrance directed toward another, and the English supplies “of you” from the farewell. 長在 means to stay or linger. Having named the places that keep them apart, the speaker ends by imagining his dreams lingering among trees and mist around Ying.

Form and tone

Eight seven-character lines form a lüshi. The middle couplets balance body and ordeal, then ridge and lake. Their numbers and paired comparisons make separation measurable and visible before the ending loosens those boundaries through a dream.

See lüshi for the larger formal pattern. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; a historical level/oblique grid is not inferred from those modern tones.

Historical context

The poem places family separation within long displacement from the capital. Its twelve years are spoken from the particular occasion, not offered here as a chronology for every exile poem by Liu Zongyuan. The selected old anthology reading 殘魂 keeps the first line focused on the speaker’s damaged spirit.

Continue with Liu Zongyuan and the farewell reading path. Compare Sending Yuan Er to Anxi and Night Rain: Sent North using the reading connections below.

Sources

Page:Gujin Tushu Jicheng, Volume 675 (1700-1725).djvu/62 — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. The checked transcription of Gujin tushu jicheng prints 殘魂; this page follows it, not the 殘紅 on the separate Wikisource poem page. Punctuation and line breaks are editorial. Translation, glosses, and reading notes are original to PoemWell.

English translation, gloss, and notes by PoemWell. The translation is original to this site.

The Chinese source is shown in traditional characters by default, with a simplified view available. Pinyin is modern standard Mandarin, a reading aid, not Tang or Song pronunciation.

Updated .

Cite this reading

Liu Zongyuan. “Parting from My Younger Brother Zongyi” (別舍弟宗一). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/parting-from-zongyi

Credit the poet for the Chinese original and PoemWell for this translation and commentary. Use the permanent page link above; source editions are listed separately.