Yuan Zhen 元稹

809 · A dream at a post station on his mission. It is said to have been the very day Bai Juyi wrote his poem thinking of him at Ci'en Temple

I dreamed that you and I walked round the Qujiang shore together, and wandered through the courts of Ci'en Temple too. The post-station clerk shouted for the horses to be brought, and I woke with a start to find myself in old Liangzhou.

夢君同繞曲江頭，也向慈恩院院遊。 亭吏呼人排去馬，忽驚身在古梁州。

"A Dream at Liangzhou"

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c. 811 · After losing his wife Wei Cong, who shared his years of poverty

I know well that this sorrow comes to everyone, but for a husband and wife who were poor together, everything is cause for grief.

誠知此恨人人有，貧賤夫妻百事哀。

"Letting Out My Grief," the second poem, in the Complete Tang Poems

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815

A guttering lamp, no flame, shadows flickering: this is the evening I hear you are banished to Jiujiang. Sick almost to death, I sit up startled, as a dark wind blows rain in at the cold window.

殘燈無焰影幢幢，此夕聞君謫九江。 垂死病中驚坐起，暗風吹雨入寒窗。

"On Hearing That Letian Was Made Marshal of Jiangzhou," in the Complete Tang Poems

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