Forever Meeting Joy: Dreaming of Panpan at Swallow Tower in Pengcheng

At Pengcheng I lodged the night in Swallow Tower, and dreamed of Panpan; and so I made this lyric.

Moonlight like frost, good wind like water, the clear scene without bound. In the winding harbor the fish leap; round lotus leaves spill their dew; in the loneliness no one is to be seen. The drum sounds the third watch; a single leaf falls with a clang; the dark dream-cloud is startled and broken. Vast is the night; I seek the dream again but cannot find it; awake, I walk all round the small garden.

A weary traveler at the sky's end; the road home among the hills; I gaze until the eyes of my heart are spent. Swallow Tower stands empty — where now is the fair one? Only the swallows are locked within it. Past and present are alike a dream — when was that dream ever woken? There is only the old gladness and the new regret. In another age, someone facing the night scene at Yellow Tower will sigh deeply for me.