Quotes about parting

Wang Wei 王維

mid-8th century · Tang China

I urge you, drain one more cup of wine. West of the Yang Pass there will be no old friends.

勸君更盡一杯酒，西出陽關無故人。

"Song of Weicheng," also called "Seeing Off Yuan the Second on His Mission to Anxi"

Open this post

Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元

815 · Tang China · Exiled together and recalled after ten years, only to be sent still farther away: on parting from Liu Yuxi at Hengyang

For twenty years we shared everything. This morning, at the fork in the road, we suddenly go east and west. If the emperor's grace should let us go home to the fields, let us be old men in neighbouring houses in our last years.

二十年來萬事同，今朝岐路忽西東。 皇恩若許歸田去，晚歲當爲鄰舍翁。

"Parting Again from Mengde"

Open this post

Liu Yuxi 劉禹錫

815 · Tang China · Liu Zongyuan died at Liuzhou four years later, and the two never met again

From the age of twenty we carried our elders' worries together. At the fork in the road I look back, and it is all so far away. If we could only plough side by side and grow old like that, we would look at each other's yellowed hair and let everything rest.

弱冠同懷長者憂，臨岐回想盡悠悠。 耦耕若便遺身老，黃髮相看萬事休。

"Answering Liu of Liuzhou Again"

Open this post

Li Yu 李煜

late 970s · Southern Tang China · While held captive after losing his kingdom

Cut it, and it does not sever. Sort it, and it tangles again. This is the sorrow of parting. It is a taste all of its own, here in the heart.

剪不斷，理還亂，是離愁。 別是一般滋味，在心頭。

To the tune "Joy at Meeting"

Open this post

Ibn Zaydun ابن زيدون

c. 1040 · Córdoba, al-Andalus

Distance has taken the place of our nearness, and coldness stands where the sweetness of our meeting was.

أضحى التنائي بديلا من تدانينا ، وناب عن طيب لقيانا تجافينا

The "Nuniyya," a poem sent to Wallada, Divan of Ibn Zaydun

Open this post

Su Zhe 蘇轍

1061 · Northern Song China · After seeing off his brother Su Shi, who was leaving for his first post

Hand in hand we said goodbye on the plain of Zheng, and both spoke of our fear of the snowy mud on the long road. My horse, turning back, looks for the lanes of Daliang. You, the traveller, must already be west of old Mount Xiao.

相携話別鄭原上，共道長途怕雪泥。 歸騎還尋大梁陌，行人已渡古崤西。

"Thinking of Mianchi, Sent to My Brother Zizhan"

Open this post

The singer of "Gasiri"

c. 13th–14th century · Goryeo Korea

Are you going, are you going away? Are you leaving me and going away? How do you expect me to live, that you leave me and go away?

가시리 가시리잇고 나ᄂᆞᆫ ᄇᆞ리고 가시리잇고 나ᄂᆞᆫ 날러는 엇디 살라 ᄒᆞ고 ᄇᆞ리고 가시리잇고 나ᄂᆞᆫ

"Gasiri," in Akjang gasa

Open this post

Hwang Jini 黃眞伊

16th century (recorded in a songbook of 1876) · Joseon Korea

Ah, what have I done? Did I not know I would miss him so? Had I told him to stay, would he have gone? Yet I, of my own will, sent him away, and this longing now: I do not understand it myself.

어져 ᄂᆡ 일이여 글일 쥴을 모로던가 이시라 ᄒᆞ면 가라마는 제 굿ᄒᆞ여 보ᄂᆡ고 글이는 情은 나도 몰나 ᄒᆞ노라

Gagok wollyu (1876)

Open this post

Choe Gyeongchang 崔慶昌

c. 1574 · Joseon Korea · A sijo in Korean that Hongnang sent him, turned into a Chinese poem by Choe Gyeongchang

I break a willow branch and send it to you a thousand li away. Plant it for me, please, before your window. And if one night new leaves come out, know this: the worn, sad eyebrows are mine.

折楊柳寄與千里人 爲我試向庭前種 須知一夜新生葉 憔悴愁眉是妾身

Gojuk yugo, "A Song Put into Chinese"

Open this post

Im Je 林悌

later 16th century · Joseon Korea

A lovely girl of fifteen, shy before others, parted without a word. Home again, she shut the double gate and wept, facing the moon in the pear blossom.

十五越溪女 羞人無語別 歸來掩重門 泣向梨花月

Im Baekho jip, "Parting Without a Word"

Open this post

Abraham Lincoln

February 11, 1861 · Illinois, USA · Boarding the train to leave home for his inauguration as president

No one not in my situation can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return …

Farewell address at the Springfield station

Open this post

Kim Sowol 金素月

1925 · Jeongju, Korea

When you leave, sick of the sight of me, I shall let you go gently, without a word.

나보기가 역겨워 가실ᄯᅢ에는 말업시 고히 보내드리우리다

"Azaleas" (Jindallaekkot), in the collection Azaleas

Open this post

Han Yongun 韓龍雲

1926 · Hongseong, Korea

As we fear parting when we meet, so we believe, when we part, that we shall meet again. Ah, my love has gone, but I have not sent my love away.

우리는 맛날ᄯᅢ에 ᄯᅥ날것을염녀하는것과가티 ᄯᅥ날ᄯᅢ에 다시맛날것을 밋슴니다 아々 님은갓지마는 나는 님을보내지 아니하얏슴니다

"The Silence of My Love" (Nim ui chimmuk), in the collection of the same name

Open this post