[updated October 2022]
Heard About Wang Changling’s Exile to Longbiao, Sent This Letter to Him
闻 王 昌 龄 左 迁 龙 标 遥 有 此 寄
扬 州 花 落 子 规 啼
闻 道 龙 标 过 五 溪。
我 寄 愁 心 与 明 月
随 君 直 到 夜 郎 西。
Wen Wang Chang Ling Zuo Qian Long Biao Yao You Ci Ji
Yang zhou hua luo zi gui ti
Wen dao long biao guo wu xi.
Wo qi chou xin xie ming yue
Sui jun zhen dao ye lang xi.
Heard About Wang Changling’s Exile to Longbiao, Sent This Letter to Him
In Yangzhou the flowers fall and the cuckoo birds cry
Heard of your path to Longbiao passes by the five western rivers.
My unusually melancholy heart-mind with the bright moon
Follows you straight to Yelang in the southwest.
Notes:
Wang Changling: (698-756) Famous Tang Dynasty poet and official. Known for his poems about fictional western frontier battles. He died during the An Lushan rebellions.
Yangzhou: City in Jiangsu Province that straddles the Grand Canal. It was very wealthy in ancient times from the salt trade.
Yelang: Ancient region of a confederation of rural peoples in western Guizhou.