chū初fā发yáng扬zǐ子jì寄yuán元dà大jiào校shū书

Yangzi here means the Yangzi ferry, a crossing on the north bank of the Yangtze, south of today's Yangzhou in Jiangsu. Yuan the Eldest was a man surnamed Yuan, the oldest son of his family; his full name is no longer known. A collator was a minor court official who checked and corrected books. Wei Yingwu wrote this poem as he set off by boat from the Yangzi ferry to go back to Luoyang. He sent it to his friend Yuan, who stayed behind in Guangling, that is, Yangzhou. Sources differ on the year.

扬子，指扬子津，是长江北岸的一个渡口，在今天江苏扬州南边。元大，姓元，在家里排行老大，名字已经不清楚了。校书，就是校书郎，在朝廷里负责校对书籍的小官。这首诗是韦应物从扬子津坐船出发、回洛阳的时候，写给留在广陵（扬州）的朋友元大的。具体写在哪一年，说法不一。

Wei Yingwu was a Tang poet from Chang'an, born around 737. As a young man he served as a guard of Emperor Xuanzong. Later he studied hard and became governor of Suzhou, so people also called him Wei Suzhou. His poems are plain and quiet. He often wrote about hills, rivers and farm life, with a light touch of sadness. People often name him together with Wang Wei and Meng Haoran.

韦应物，唐代诗人，生于737年前后，长安人。他年轻时当过唐玄宗的侍卫，后来认真读书，做过苏州刺史，所以人们也叫他“韦苏州”。他的诗平淡、安静，常写山水和田园，带着淡淡的忧伤，人们常把他和王维、孟浩然等人放在一起说。

In the first two lines the poet feels sad, and his boat drifts into a cloud of mist, so both the man and the view are blurred. Lines three and four are the finest. Sitting on the boat bound for Luoyang, he looks back at Guangling. He sees only trees, and faintly hears a bell. The trees grow farther away, the bell grows fainter, and his friend is left farther behind. Lines five and six say his worry out loud: after this parting, where will they ever meet again? The last two lines turn from himself to life itself. A person is like a little boat on the waves, carried up and down the stream, unable to stop. The poem never says "I will miss you", yet every line is full of not wanting to let go.

开头两句，诗人的心是凄凉的，小船也漂进了一片烟雾里，人和景都迷迷蒙蒙。三、四句写得最好：诗人坐在往洛阳去的船上，回头看广陵，只见一片树林，还隐隐听到钟声。树越来越远，钟声越来越弱，离朋友也越来越远。五、六句直接说出担心：这一别，不知哪里才能再见。最后两句由自己想到人生：人就像波浪上的小船，顺流逆流，由不得自己，停也停不下来。全诗不说“想你”，可是一路都是不舍。