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赠汪伦 唐 · 李白 李白乘舟将欲行，忽闻岸上踏歌声。 桃花潭水深千尺，不及汪伦送我情。 To Wang Lun (Li Bai) I, Li Bai, sit aboard a ship about to go, When suddenly on shore your farewell songs o’erflow. However deep the Lake of Peach Blossoms may be, it is not so deep, O Wang Lun! As your love for me. (Translated by Xu Yuanchong) Friendship is an important theme in all kinds of art. Whether straightforward (直白的) or implicit (含蓄的), it shows up in poetry from around the world. The seven-character poem To Wang Lun, written by Tang poet Li Bai (701-762), is a good example of poetry that carries this theme. It describes a scene in which the poet’s friend, Wang Lun, hurries to see him off, showing true friendship. The first two lines give us background information. Li is on a boat, about to travel. Then, suddenly, he hears someone singing on the shore. The starting lines are so plain and simple that they almost read like prose (散文). They even contain names, something rarely seen in traditional Chinese poetry. It shows Li’s character – he is free and wild. He is not sentimental (多愁善感的) when parting from friends. Starting with ordinary images, however, the poem ends with passionate and sincere emotions (真挚情感). Li uses simile (比喻) to state that however deep the water may be, it still pales in front of their deep friendship. The poet aims to avoid praising the friendship directly, which would be much less poetic. In ancient China, when people could only travel long distances by boat, wagon (马车) or on foot, saying goodbye to a friend carried great importance and inspired some memorable lines of poetry. Another Tang poet, Wang Wei, wrote the following: “I invite you to drink a cup of wine again; West of the Sunny Pass no more friends will be seen (劝君更尽一杯酒，西出阳关无故人).” Similarly, Tang poet Wang Bo wrote, “A bosom friend afar brings a distant land near (海内存知己，天涯若比邻).”
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