Joy at Meeting an Old Friend from Liangzhou on the Huai
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
相逢每醉还。
浮云一别后，
流水十年间。
欢笑情如旧，
萧疏鬓已斑。
何因不归去？
淮上有秋山。
English translation
Once a sojourner by the Yangtze and Han, whenever we met we parted only drunk.
Since that parting, like drifting clouds, like flowing water, ten years have gone.
Our laughter and feeling are as of old, but our thin temples are streaked with gray.
Then why do I not go home? Here on the Huai are autumn hills.
Meaning
I remember how I once lived far from home, drifting on the rivers of Jianghan; meeting you in a strange land, we joined hands and came back drunk. After we parted I drifted like a floating cloud, and the years flowed by, and in a flash ten years had passed. Meeting today, our laughter and ease are as of old, though our hair has thinned and our temples turned white. Why do I not go home with my old friend? Because of the beautiful autumn hills along the Huai River.
Background
Read the background
The exact date of this poem is unknown. At Huai (the area of present-day Huaiyin, Jiangsu) the poet met an old acquaintance with whom he had had dealings in the region of Liangzhou and the Jiang and Han ten years before, and so wrote this piece out of what he felt.