Seeing a Friend Off
送友人
Sòng yǒu rén
Clouds, sunset, and the cries of parting horses hold a farewell outside the city. Read the Chinese, pinyin, word meanings, and original English translation.
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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.
Word meanings — Line 1
- 青山 qīng shān green hills
- 橫 héng lie across
- 北郭 běi guō northern outer city wall
Word meanings — Line 2
- 白水 bái shuǐ bright water
- 繞 rào wind around
- 東城 dōng chéng eastern city
Word meanings — Line 3
- 此地 cǐ dì this place
- 一 yì once
- 為別 wéi bié make a farewell
Word meanings — Line 4
- 孤蓬 gū péng lone windblown plant
- 萬里 wàn lǐ ten thousand li
- 征 zhēng travel
Word meanings — Line 5
- 浮雲 fú yún drifting cloud
- 遊子 yóu zǐ traveler
- 意 yì thoughts
Word meanings — Line 6
- 落日 luò rì setting sun
- 故人 gù rén old friend
- 情 qíng feeling
Word meanings — Line 7
- 揮手 huī shǒu wave a hand
- 自茲 zì zī from here
- 去 qù go
Word meanings — Line 8
- 蕭蕭 xiāo xiāo neighing sound
- 班馬 bān mǎ horses parting from companions
- 鳴 míng call
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
青山橫北郭，
白水繞東城。
此地一為別，
孤蓬萬里征。
浮雲遊子意，
落日故人情。
揮手自茲去，
蕭蕭班馬鳴。
Translation
Green hills lie across the northern outer wall;
bright water winds around the eastern city.
Once we part at this place,
a lone tumbleweed journeys ten thousand li.
Drifting cloud: the traveler's thoughts.
Setting sun: the old friend's feeling.
We wave, and from here you go;
the separating horses call and call.
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.
-
Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?
青山橫北郭，
Pronunciation hint
qīng shān
Reveal meaning and translation
青山 — green hills
Green hills lie across the northern outer wall;
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
浮雲遊子意，
Pronunciation hint
fú yún
Reveal meaning and translation
浮雲 — drifting cloud
Drifting cloud: the traveler's thoughts.
-
Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
蕭蕭班馬鳴。
Pronunciation hint
xiāo xiāo
Reveal meaning and translation
蕭蕭 — neighing sound
the separating horses call and call.
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 →Self-check at your own pace. No score or progress is saved. Open only the answers you want included when printing.
Line-by-line notes
Lines 1–2 — Setting the edges of town
郭 is a city’s outer enclosure. 橫 makes the green hills stretch across the northern edge, while 繞 sends water curving around the eastern city. The orientation fixes a point of departure before the travelers move.
Lines 3–4 — After “this place”
此地 points back to that specific place. 一為別 makes parting the threshold for what follows. 孤蓬 pictures the departing person as a lone windblown plant. The thousandfold distance in 萬里 belongs to the uncertainty of the road ahead.
Lines 5–6 — Two kinds of feeling
浮雲 moves and 落日 lingers within a view. The Chinese places these beside the traveler’s 意 and the old friend’s 情 without a stated “is like.” The English colons keep the images and feelings close without making them fixed emblems.
Lines 7–8 — A sound after the gesture
揮手 is a wave at the point of departure, and 自茲 returns to the “here” of 此地. 班馬 are horses separated from their fellows. 蕭蕭 makes their calling audible after the wave. The last sound gives the parting a duration beyond the human gesture.
Form and tone
Eight five-character lines form a regulated verse. The central parallels are especially audible in 浮雲 / 落日 and 遊子 / 故人. 城, 征, 情, and 鳴 end the even lines. The final sound loosens the balanced stillness of the preceding images.
See the regulated verse guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The title leaves the friend unnamed. This allows the roles of traveling person and remaining friend to carry the poem without an invented biography. The horizon, emotions, gesture, and animal cry each make separation visible or audible in a different way.
Continue with Li Bai or the farewell shelf.
Sources
Chinese text compared with 送友人, public transcription on Wikisource. Punctuation is editorial; the English translation 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
Li Bai. “Seeing a Friend Off” (送友人). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/seeing-a-friend-off
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.