Taking Leave of a Friend
Taking Leave of a Friend - context Summary
From Cathay Translations
This short poem, included in Ezra Pound's Cathay, is Pound's spare rendering of a classical Chinese farewell scene. It compresses a parting into a few vivid images — mountains, river, drifting cloud, horses — and frames separation as both physical journey and elegiac recognition. The poem emphasizes distance and calm resignation, using minimal, concrete details to evoke mood rather than narrative.
Read Complete AnalysesBlue mountains to the north of the walls, White river winding about them; Here we must make separation And go out through a thousand miles of dead grass. Mind like a floating wide cloud, Sunset like the parting of old acquaintances Who bow over their clasped hands at a distance. Our horses neigh to each others as we are departing.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.