Three partings for Yang Guan by Wang Wei

Wang Wei (699-759) was a native of Taiyuan in present-day Shanxi Province. He held important posts at the court of the Tang dynasty Emperor Xuanzong, where he was for a time Master of Music. Later, he served at Liangzhou on the northwestern frontier. Wang Wei won fame as a poet and a painter and spent many years studying Chan Buddhism. In this poem, which was often depicted in paintings and set to music, he writes of the sorrow he feels on farewelling a friend of his who is departing on an official mission to western lands far from the court.

陽關三疊 王維	yáng guān sān dié	Three partings for Yang guan by Wang Wei
送院二使安西	Song yuan èr shǐ ānxī	Seeing off Yuan er on his mission to Kucha
渭城朝雨浥輕塵，	Wèichéng zhāo yǔ yìqīng chén	City on the Wei River, morning rain wets light dust.
客舍青青柳色新	Kèshè qīngqīng liǔsè xīn.	At the guesthouse, green green the new colours of the willows.
勸君更盡一杯酒。	Quàn jūn gēng jìn yī bēi jiǔ,	Have one more cup of wine!
西出陽關無故人。	Xī chū yáng guān, wú gǔ rén.	When you go out west through Yang Pass, there will be no old friends.

"Farewell Picture of Folding Willows" by Fu Baoshi (傅抱石) (1904-1965)