Censor (taegan) Chŏng Chisang’s poem “Western Capital” 西京, 雨歇長堤草色多送君南浦動悲歌大同江水何時盡別淚年年添綠波 When the rain stops, the long riverbanks turn luxuriantly green. Seeing you off at Namp’o moves me to sing sad tunes.The waters of the Taedong River,when will you run dry?Tears at parting each year add to blue breakers. is praised as a poetic masterpiece (chŏlch’ang) to this day. When poetry plaques were removed from pavilions in time for the arrival of imperial envoys, only this poem was left. After that, responding to Chŏng’s poem Ch’oe Kyŏngch’ang wrote, 水岸悠悠楊柳多小船爭唱采菱歌紅衣落盡西風起日暮芳洲生白波 Along the riverbanks that extend on and on, there are lots of willow trees.From the small boats far away, people sing “Water Chestnut Picking Song.”After the red petals have all fallen, the winds rise from the west. At dust, in the flowering isleswhite waves swell. Responding to the poem, Yi Tal wrote, 蓮葉參差蓮子多蓮花相間女郎歌歸時約伴橫塘口辛苦移舟逆上波 Lotus leaves are here and there. Lotus seeds are bountiful.Amid lotus flowers, young girls sing.They promised to return and meet their friends at the mouth of the dike.So they onerously push the boat up against the waves. Although the two poems are good and have the lingering taste of Wang Changling 王昌齡 (698–756) and Li Junyu 李君虞 (748–827), but were just “Lotus Picking Songs” and did not have the original meaning of seeing off in “Western Capital.”
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