#I mean Yu lived in the only period of aristocracy in Chinese history

[andromache-hectoris]

Willow Song (Yangliu ge 楊柳歌)

The willow tree by the river had boughs of a hundred feet,

its long branches hanging curling to the ground.

The currents rushing and dashing, the roots of the willow in danger,

suddenly it was blown by wind and waves into the river.

How pitiful—the young phoenix in the nest on the willow tree!

Somehow, back then, it was severed from its home.

Once the drifting raft went off, it rose to the Pool of Stars,

and should be taking away the loom-stone of the Weaver.

[Legend has it that as the Han envoy Zhang Qian 張騫 was looking for the source of the Yellow River, his raft arrived at the Heavenly River, and he obtained the stone used by the Weaving Girl, the goddess of weaving to support her loom]

Who would believe that all it needed to shelter several states was only one little southeastern branch?

[In a fragment from Sun Chuo 孙綽's Sunzi 孙子, a man of the mountain tells a man of the sea that a huge tree of the Deng Grove may shelter several states. This couplet refers to the former might of the willow tree and suggests the past power and glory of the Liang.]

The young lord who in the old days made outings at Nanpi,

where can one find him now on the banks of Xuanwu Pond?

A handsome charger galloping toward the northwest,

to left and right the rider arched his bow, shooting at the Yuezhi.

[In these lines Yu Xin alludes to a number of writings by the Cao princes: in one of his letters, Cao Pi 曹丕 (187-226) recalled their outings at Nanpi in the old days; Cao Pi's poem "Written at the Xuanwu Pond" ("Yu Xuanwu pi zuo" 於玄武陂作) begins with the line: "Brothers go on an outing together." Cao Zhi 曹植(192-232)'s "Ballad on the White Horse"("Baima Pian" 白马篇) describes the military accomplishments of a chivalrous knight-errant.]

The mudguard patterned with stringed coins got soiled in crossing the brook,

[It was said that the minister Wang Ji 王济's horse had to cross a stream but feared staining the precious mudguard it was wearing.]

and the white jade tablet fell into the mouth of the coiled dragon.

[Emperor Ming of the Jin (r. 322–24), while still a little boy and the crown prince, put his white jade tablet in the open mouth of a bronze coiled dragon; the jade tablet slipped in and could not be recovered. It is likely that the jade tablet powerfully epitomizes the tragic fate of Xiao Gang 萧綱, one of the Liang princes and the poet's "understanding friend"]

New pipes of the phoenix, Xiao Shi had played them;

through the spring window of vermilion bird,

the Jade Maiden was peeping.

[Xiao Shi was the son-in-law of the Duke Mu of Qin. Playing on his panpipes, he summoned a phoenix and rode away with his wife. In Han Wudi gushi 漢武帝故事, Dongfang Shuo 東方朔 was said to have peeped at the Queen Mother of the West through the vermilion bird window.]

The wine goblet containing clouds was made of red agate;

the food vessel of purple glass reflected the sun.

If you think that a man has no ambition,

let me ask you—how did Mount Yan acquire its stone stele?

[The Eastern Han general Dou Xian 窦憲 inscribed his grand victory over the Xiongnu army on a stone stele on the Mount Yanran 燕然]

And yet, what has lasted a hundred years of frost and dew all at once withers,

suddenly one morning, accomplishments and fame are out of reach.

It must be that King Huai had erred in his plan,

recanting for no reason and trusting Zhang Yi.

[King Huai of Chu was duped by the Qin minister Zhang Yi and severed relations with the state of Qi. King Huai later died in Qin.]

Ah, one had better get drunk at the Gaoyang Pond,

coming back at day's end, wearing one's cap upside down.

[Toward the end of the Western Jin, the state was beset with troubles, but Shan Jian 山簡, the governor of Xiangyang, cared only about drinking. He often drank by a scenic local pond, which he referred to as his "Gaoyang Pond," Gaoyang being a reference to the Western Han figure Li Yiji 酈食其, the self-styled "Drunkard of Gaoyang." A song was made about Shan Jian coming home drunk and wearing his cap upside down.]

Who had transplanted the willow from the Wuchang city gate?

[The Eastern Jin general Tao Kan once recognized a willow transplanted from the west city gate of Wuchang.]

How could one still recognize it in front of the Guandu encampment?

[Cao Pi, in the preface to his "Fu on the Willow" ("Liu fu"柳賦), relates that he had planted a willow at Guandu in 200; now, fifteen years later, the tree had grown a great deal, and "many of my followers had died."]

I alone still remember the days when its catkins were blown around like goose feathers;

today, there are no more silk threads hanging like the green horse-binders.

I would like to leave a song about the willow, a companion piece for "Plum Blossoms,"

[Both "Breaking the Willow Branches"(“Zhe Yangliu” 楊杨柳) and "Plum Blossoms Fall"("Meihua luo" 梅花落) were popular yuefu titles in the Southern Dynasties.]

so as to play the tunes together on a long flute.

Yu Xin(513-581), Chinese poet of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. A friend of the Southern Liang court, he was detained on a mission to the Northern dynasties(Western Wei and Northern Zhou), witnessing the fall of Liang in 557 and never again returned to the South.

Tian, Xiaofei. (2008). Parting Ways: Writing Trauma and Diaspora in the Poetry of Mid-Sixth Century China. In Hsiang Lectures on Chinese Poetry, Vol. 4 (pp47-82). Centre for East Asian Research, McGill University.