Tang Duo Ling: Reeds Fill the River Islet
At a small gathering in Anyuan Tower, a singing girl with clappers whose surname was Huang served the wine and asked Longzhou Daoren for lyrics, so I composed this Tang Duo Ling. Present were Liu Fuzhi, Liu Qufei, Shi Minzhan, Zhou Jiazhong, Chen Mengcan, and Meng Rong. It was the fifth day of the eighth month.
Southern Song, Liu Guo
Reeds fill the river islet; cold sand borders the shallow current. After twenty years I pass South Tower again.
The boat under the willows is not yet moored; in just a few days, Mid-Autumn comes again.
By the broken Yellow Crane Rock, are my old friends still there? The old rivers and mountains are all new sorrow.
I wanted to buy cassia flowers and bring wine aboard, but it is no longer like the travels of youth.
Creative Background
Anyuan Tower stood on Mount Huanghu in Wuchang and was also called South Tower. It was built in 1186, the thirteenth year of Chunxi. Jiang Kui once composed Cuilou Yin to commemorate it. Liu Guo revisited South Tower nearly twenty years after his previous visit. Near the end of his life and facing such disorder, Liu Guo saw the same landscape, but it stirred grief for the country and the times. That state of mind is deeply reflected in this ci.