
"A Song at Weicheng" (送元二使安西), as translated by Witter Bynner in Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty
Variant translations:
Wei City morning rain dampens the light dust.
By this inn, green, newly green willows.
I urge you to drink another cup of wine;
West of Yang Pass, are no old friends.
Mike O'Connor, "Wei City Song" in Where the World Does Not Follow (2002), p. 119
No dust is raised on pathways wet with morning rain,
The willows by the tavern look so fresh and green.
I invite you to drink a cup of wine again:
West of the Southern Pass no more friends will be seen.
Xu Yuan-zhong, "A Farewell Song" in 150 Tang Poems (1984), p. 29
Light rain is on the light dust.
The willows of the inn-yard
Will be going greener and greener,
But you, Sir, had better take wine ere your departure,
For you will have no friends about you
When you come to the gates of Go.
Ezra Pound, epigraph to "Four Poems of Departure", in Cathay (1915), p. 28