Thank Bai Juyi for His Poem He Gave Me at the Banquet in Yangzhou We First Met

By Liu Yuxi (Tang Dynasty)

Ba Mountains and Chu Rivers are places desolate and dreary,

I was deserted there for twenty-three years.

I miss my old friends and recite the flute smelling ode in vain,

I feel that it is not the old time after a long exile.

Thousands of ships were passing by the sunken ship,

thousands of trees were fighting for spring in front of the sick tree.

After listening to the poem you recited for me today,

let's use this glass of wine to cheer up.

酬乐天扬州初逢席上见赠

刘禹锡（唐）

巴山楚水凄凉地，二十三年弃置身。

怀旧空吟闻笛赋，到乡翻似烂柯人。

沉舟侧畔千帆过，病树前头万木春。

今日听君歌一曲，暂凭杯酒长精神。

Creative background

This poem was written in the second year of the Baoli period of emperor Jingzong of the Tang Dynasty (826). Liu Yuxi returned to Luoyang after striking a strike with the governor of Hezhou. At the same time, Bai Juyi returned to Luoyang from Suzhou. At the beginning of their time in Yangzhou, Bai Juyi wrote a poem to Liu Yuxi at a banquet. Liu Yuxi wrote this poem in reply.

Liu Yuxi loved to play go since childhood, and he was very close to Wang Shuwen, who specially taught the crown prince of Tang Dezong to play chess. After the prince became emperor, his teacher Wang Shuwen formed a cabinet to govern, and promoted his chess friend Liu Yuxi to be the censor. Later, after the failure of the political reform of Wang Shuwen group, Liu Yuxi was demoted to other places as an official, and was called back to Beijing in the second year of Baoli (826). Passing through Yangzhou in winter, I met Bai Juyi, who was also demoted. Bai Juyi wrote a poem "drunk to the twenty-eight apostles of Liu" at the banquet: "bring me a cup of wine and drink, and beat the drum with you to the song. The poem says that the national apprentice is you, and his life is pressing on his head. The scenery is long and lonely, and the official position of the Manchu Dynasty is wasted alone. He also knows that he is famous for his talent, and 23 years is too much." In the poem, Bai Juyi expressed sympathy and injustice for Liu Yuxi's relegation. So Liu Yuxi wrote this song "pay happy days, see you at the banquet at the beginning of Yangzhou" in return for Bai Juyi.