Classic Poem

When you passed through Hsiang-yang
I was still living in Ch'ang-an.
Now you're in T'ung-chou
and I've just taken leave of Hsiang-yang.
Hsiang-yang — three miles of outer wall,
towers, parapets, cloud-topped trees —
gazing at them, I felt a certain closeness,
knowing you'd been there earlier.
Vast stretches of reed and rush-grown water,
and there lies the road to Hsün-yang.
From here my thoughts will be more and more of you —
in these western reaches of the Yangtze, friends are few.