Wei Yingwu ruminates on fate

A classic expansion of the classic departure poem theme

A Letter to Secretary Yuan as I Depart from Yangtze Ford
Wei Yingwu

How sad, my dear friend, how sad,
How gradually the mist takes me.
My oars in hand, a Luoyang man,
While Guangling's dawn bells echo in the trees.
We separate this early dawn,
To later meet again, who knows?
Our mortal state: unmoored on fate;
The ship of men can't stem its ebb and flow.

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Wei Yingwu (approx. 737-796) was a successful poet-official. Guangling was a city in the south, now called Yangzhou; Luoyang was a major city in the eastern heartlands. The Yangtze ford was a river crossing near Guangling.

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韦应物  初发扬子寄元大校书

凄凄去亲爱，泛泛入烟雾。

归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树。

今朝为此别，何处还相遇。

世事波上舟，沿洄安得住。