No Title (Coming Was Empty Words, Leaving Completely Severed)

No Title (Coming Was Empty Words, Leaving Completely Severed)

Untitled

Li Shangyin

Your coming was empty words, your leaving a vanished trail,

The moon slants above the tower, the fifth-watch bell rings through the night.

I dream of distant parting—weeping, I cannot call you back,

The letter was written in haste—the ink had not yet thickened.

The candle's glow half veils the golden kingfisher,

The musk's faint fragrance drifts across the embroidered hibiscus.

The Lord of Liu already grieved that Mount Penglai was far away—

And now it stands ten thousandfold further still!