Farewell to the Daughter of the Yang Family
送楊氏女 · Three Hundred Tang Poems
Farewell to the Daughter of the Yang Family
All day long my heart is heavy, and when you leave, my thoughts drift on and on.
Now this daughter of mine is setting forth, to sail up the great river in a small boat.
You have long suffered from the loss of a mother’s shelter, and my tenderness for you grows all the gentler.
You were raised by your elder sister, and the two of you wept without end at parting.
Facing this, my heart is wracked with grief—duty calls you onward, and I cannot hold you back.
From childhood you lacked a mother’s teaching, and I fear how you will serve your mother-in-law.
Yet now you are entrusted to a good household, where kindness and care will, I hope, keep you from blame.
Plainness and frugality are truly to be prized; for your dowry, how could it be fully prepared?
Be dutiful and reverent, follow the way of a wife, and let your bearing and demeanor be guided by what is fitting.
This parting is here this morning—when shall I see you again?
In my leisure I begin to console myself, but as the moment draws near, my feelings cannot be restrained.
I return to look upon my young daughter, and tears stream down, following the cords of her cap.
送楊氏女
永日方慼慼，出門復悠悠。
女子今有行，大江泝輕舟。
爾輩苦無恃，撫念益慈柔。
幼爲長所育〈幼女爲楊氏所撫育〉，兩別泣不休。
對此結中腸，義往難復留。
自小闕內訓〈言早無恃〉，事姑貽我憂。
賴茲託令門，仁恤庶無尤。
貧儉誠所尚，資從豈待一作「在」周。
孝恭遵婦道，容止順其猷。
別離在今晨，見爾當何秋。
居閑始自遣，臨感忽難收。
歸來視幼女，零淚緣纓流。