Tang Dynasty
送友人
薛涛
水国蒹葭夜有霜，
月寒山色共苍苍。
谁言千里自今夕，
离梦杳如关塞长。
Translation
In the watery land, reeds and rushes are touched with frost at night; the cold moon and the mountain colors merge into one vast grey. Who says the distance of a thousand miles begins only tonight? Even dreams after parting will be dim and far away, long as passes and borderlands.
Analysis
Xue Tao’s “Seeing Off a Friend” is built from a cool and distant palette. The opening images—watery country, reeds, night frost, cold moon, mountain colors—create an atmosphere of damp chill and vastness. The farewell is not described through tears or gestures, but through the landscape’s quiet desolation. The phrase “one vast grey” fuses moonlight, mountains, and feeling into a single field of distance. The final couplet deepens the poem by moving from physical separation to dream. A dream should be able to cross distance, yet here even dreams become dim and long, like frontier passes. The poem is delicate, but not weak; its restraint allows the sorrow of parting to stretch far beyond the moment itself.
About the Author
Xue Tao was a celebrated woman poet of the Middle Tang, known for her literary talent and refined poetic style. Originally from Chang’an, she spent much of her life in Sichuan and was associated with prominent writers of her age, including Yuan Zhen, Bai Juyi, and Liu Yuxi. Her poems are often concise, elegant, and emotionally subtle. She is also remembered for the fine writing paper later known as “Xue Tao paper.” “Seeing Off a Friend” shows her ability to express farewell through cool, spacious imagery rather than direct lament.