Written at Tongguan Post Station on an Autumn Journey to the Capital
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
长亭酒一瓢。
残云归太华，
疏雨过中条。
树色随山迥，
河声入海遥。
帝乡明日到，
犹自梦渔樵。
English translation
Red leaves rustle in the evening, at the wayside pavilion, a gourd of wine.
Ragged clouds return to Mount Hua, thin rain crosses Zhongtiao.
The color of the trees follows the hills afar, the river's voice reaches the distant sea.
Tomorrow I arrive at the imperial city, yet still I dream of fishing and cutting wood.
Meaning
Red leaves fall rustling in the evening wind, and in the long pavilion I drink a gourd of farewell wine.
Broken clouds fly back over Mount Taihua, and a sparse fine rain crosses the Zhongtiao Ridge.
The dark masses of trees recede with the pass, and the Yellow River roars away into the distant sea.
Tomorrow I shall reach the capital, yet I am still dreaming the dream of a fisherman and a woodcutter.
Background
Read the background
Tongguan lies in the northern part of present-day Tongguan county, Shaanxi; it is a place of strategic defensibility, pleasant scenery, and special standing. Poets of every age who passed this way have generally inscribed poems to record its excellence. On his way from his native place, Danyang in Runzhou (in present-day Jiangsu), to Chang'an for the first time, Xu Hun passed through Tongguan; his spirits brimmed over, he took up his brush and wrote this poem.