To Wang Lun

Lines 1–2: the sound that interrupts departure

The poem begins with the poet's own name. Our “I, Li Bai” keeps that unusual self-introduction rather than replacing it with an anonymous traveler. 將欲 places him at the threshold of leaving. 忽, “suddenly,” then makes the song an arrival inside the departure.

踏歌 is singing with a rhythm marked by the feet. It is more specific than a general farewell song, but the words do not give its lyrics or require us to invent a large procession. The shore matters because the speaker is already aboard.

Lines 3–4: how deep is a farewell?

桃花潭 is a place-name, Peach Blossom Pool. 千尺 enlarges its depth rhetorically. The last line sets that physical depth against 送我情: the feeling expressed in seeing me off. 不及 means that even the depth of the pool falls short.

The comparison is deliberately generous. The poem does not explain Wang Lun's thoughts or describe a long history of the friendship. It gives an audible gesture and makes it immeasurable. “Feeling” is broad enough to keep affection, generosity, and sorrow together without assigning a single emotion.

Chi is a historical unit of length. The number conveys depth on a scale the farewell can still exceed.

What does the pool measure?

The Chinese unit 尺 is chi; its historical length is not the modern English foot. The translation retains chi rather than implying a modern conversion or a surveyed depth. The important comparison is grammatical: 不及 makes the pool fall short of the feeling expressed in seeing someone off. Try ending the poem after line three. It would leave an impressive landscape, but not yet the reason that this landscape belongs to Wang Lun. The final personal name redirects the scale toward the friend.

Line two gives the farewell through 聞 and 聲 before line four gives it through a name. This matters to the comparison. Wang Lun’s feeling is something the speaker has already heard in a particular action, so the last line measures what the song has made perceptible.

Four seven-character lines make a jueju. 行, 聲, and 情 rhyme in the received rhyme tradition. Read 行 here as xíng, “go,” rather than háng, “row.”

The first couplet tells a brief event; the second answers it with a comparison. Its scale grows from a boat and shore to a thousand chi, then beyond what that number can express. Mandarin pinyin is a reading aid; a historical tone grid is not supplied.

Li Bai addresses Wang Lun through a poem that also names both men. The collected note associates the visit with Peach Blossom Pool in Jing County and Wang Lun's hospitality. The four lines themselves establish the farewell; they do not contain the elaborate invitation tricks told in later anecdotes.

Read it with Yellow Crane Tower Farewell, where Li Bai remains on shore. Changing which friend leaves changes the senses the poem uses: here he hears; there he keeps looking. Sending Yuan Er to Anxi holds a traveler with direct speech before departure. The three poems offer distinct actions on the farewell shelf.

The English translation, gloss, and notes were written for PoemWell.

Read this poem alongside the contrasting selections in our friendship and farewell guide.