Last Year at the city gate we kissed farewell 少年游·去年相送

Last Year at the city gate we kissed farewell

(a letter per pro a young wife)

--to the tune of “A Young Traveller”

Chinese original: Su Shi (11th AC, social name 'Zizhan', art name 'Dongpo')

English translation & annotation: Julia Min (Oct. 2024)

Last year at the city gate, we kissed farewell.

Hangzhou snowed like catkins from willows.

This year, Spring still holds for your way home,

Catkins fly like snow, seeking where you roam.

Drinking alone by the window, curtains rolled,

I ask the fair Moon to join me for a toast.

She replied thru the gauze in the night’s cold,

beaming on the roof beam: a pair of swallows.

Analysis:

Su Shi was 37 and held the post as Governor/Magistrate of Hangzhou in 1074. It was probably during a social function where he was approached by a lady to write a letter on her behalf. Such scenarios were common then, as many women were illiterate.

The antithesis between last year and this year reads smoothly, leaving a strong impression. Snow and catkins swap roles across the two stanzas—last year snow fell like catkins; this year catkins fly like snow. Nature has reversed its order, but the husband has not yet returned. Catkins in classical Chinese literature often carry a yearning, seeking, or helpless sentiment. Here, they "seek your smile," giving the natural object an active, almost desperate agency.

The second stanza unrolls a touching picture: a young lady drinking alone by her moonlit window. In classical Chinese architecture, the roof beams of newlyweds' chambers were often carved or painted with loving swallows, magpies, mandarin duck pairs, or other creatures bearing romantic meanings. The moon does not speak in words—she responds by illuminating that very beam, revealing a paired set of swallows. The response is wordless, visual, and devastating: the wife sees what she lacks.

The present tense ("responds," "beaming") brings the moment alive, as if the moon is acting now, not in past memory. The internal rhyme of "beaming on the roof beam" adds a subtle musical quality, drawing attention to the exact spot where the swallows rest.

This short poem falls into Su Shi's sentimental profile, which may seem pale beside his highly recognised heroic and robust style. Yet the young wife's romantic sentiments are implied beneath the line through symbolism rather than on the line through direct language like "I miss you." The vocabulary remains simple, everyday language. The final image—a pair of swallows illuminated by moonlight, saying everything without a word—is the poem's quiet masterpiece.

少年游·去年相送

(润州作, 代人寄远)

原作: 苏轼（字子瞻, 号东坡居士; 11世纪北宋）

去年相送，余杭门外，飞雪似杨花。

今年春尽，杨花似雪，犹不见还家。

对酒卷帘邀明月，风露透窗纱。

恰似姮娥怜双燕，分明照、画梁斜。

Reference:

1. m.gushiwen.cn(古诗文网）