A message to Du Fu under the Sand Dune City
The author was Li Bai in the Tang Dynasty
What happened to me when I came to lie high in the Sand Dune City?
There are ancient trees beside the city, and the sound of autumn continues from day to night.
You can’t get drunk with Lu wine. Qi Ge empty-handedly regains his love.
Thinking of you as if you were on the water, sending you a mighty expedition to the south.
Translation:
What on earth am I here for? Sit back and relax in Dune City.
There are old and ancient trees beside the sand dune city, and the sound of rustling day and night is connected with the sound of autumn.
It’s hard to get drunk with the thin wine of Lu, but it’s useless to sing with strong love to anyone.
My thoughts about you are like the surging Wen River, which flows southward to express my deep feelings.
Extended information
Creative background
According to the "Compendium of Li Bai Chronicles" compiled by Pei Fei, this poem is considered to be in the fourth year of Emperor Xuanzong's Tianbao reign (745) In autumn, Li Bai was forty-five years old. In the spring of the third year of Tianbao (744), Li Bai left Chang'an and began to roam. In Luoyang, I met Du Fu, who was thirty-three years old but had not yet entered his official career, and they traveled together. In the autumn of the same year, Li Bai, Du Fu and Gao Shi met in Liangyuan and traveled to Mengzhu, Qizhou and other places together.
The two met again in Donglu in the summer of the next year. They are in love with each other and are so close that they "walk together hand in hand every day while sleeping drunkenly in autumn". In the autumn of Tianbao's fourth year, they broke up and Du Fuxi went to Chang'an. After Li Bai bid farewell to Du Fu at the East Stone Gate of Lu County, and before traveling south to Jiangdong, he once lived in Sand Dune City. In memory of Du Fu, I wrote this poem as a gift.