Seventh century
Luo Binwang
駱賓王
Luo Binwang’s geese and Yi River farewell offer two kinds of vivid attention: immediate color and movement, and the cold presence of remembered history.
Luo Binwang belongs to the seventh-century Tang literary world and is traditionally grouped among the Four Masters of the Early Tang. Exact accounts of his dates and final years vary; this reading guide uses a broad period rather than presenting an uncertain chronology as settled.
The two poems on this shelf are short, but their forms and effects differ. One names a familiar bird with delight; the other brings a famous earlier departure into a present farewell.
Begin with what the birds do
Ode to Geese opens with three repetitions of the bird’s name. It then moves from curved necks and calls to feathers floating and feet paddling. The final pair combines color with action: white feathers and red feet meet green water and clear ripples.
The source associates the poem with childhood. That traditional story should not substitute for reading its craft. Notice how the verbs distinguish floating from actively pushing water. Also count the first line: three characters followed by three five-character lines make an uneven pattern, not a standard five-character quatrain.
Then listen to the past
A Farewell by the Yi River begins by recalling Jing Ke’s departure from Prince Dan of Yan. The people belong to an earlier time, while the water remains available to the present speaker. The final word, “cold,” therefore describes a sensation that also carries memory.
The poem does not identify the current traveler by name. Its title gives a farewell occasion, and the body places that occasion beside a remembered one. Our notes keep those two moments distinct rather than treating the Tang poet as a witness to the older event.
Ways to continue
Read the goose poem beside Two Yellow Orioles for another arrangement of birds, color, and motion. Read the river farewell beside On Youzhou Terrace for another encounter with absent people across time. The nature, farewell, and memory shelves make these different connections visible.
The Wikisource author record lists works, the traditional grouping, and links to biographies. The source notes on the two poem pages link the Chinese transcriptions used for comparison; no modern external translation is reproduced here.
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