Poem Presented to Peng, Wei Peng’s Wife

After the end of his term as Provincial Governor of Jianzhou, Wei Peng lived abroad in Nanchang, always without a thought of writing poetry. After falling ill, he acted bewildered as though losing his mind, like there was someone guiding him. Suddenly, he demanded a brush and wrote a poem, the sense of which was as if it had been bestowed on him by his dead wife. After ten-plus days, Peng expired.

My lonely grave looks on the river.
Each day I watch the sun turn dusk—
Pine shadows shake in endless winds
As moonlight falls upon the foothills.
My hometown’s over a thousand li—
I rarely saw my relatives.
I gaze and gaze at cloudy mountains.
I grieve and grieve, my tears like sleet.
I hate I have a foreign tomb
And so return to this strange town:
I long to speak of old Dunchou—
Do not reject this lowly one.

赠朋诗
作者：魏朋妻
〈建州刺史魏朋，辞满后，客居南昌，素无诗思。后遇病，迷惑失心，如有人相引接，忽索笔书诗，诗意如其亡妻以赠朋也。后十馀日，朋卒。〉
孤坟临清江，
每睹白日晚。
松影摇长风，
蟾光落岩甸。
故乡千里馀，
亲戚罕相见。
望望空云山，
哀哀泪如霰。
恨为泉台客，
复此异乡县。
愿言敦畴昔，
勿以弃疵贱。

Jianzhou is modern Jian'ou, Fujian, while Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi, the province to the west. The implication is that she was buried in the former, and that further-off Dunchou (which I’ve not identified) is their original hometown. The sense for lonely grave of “a grave for a married couple where only one is buried because the other is alive” is relevant here.

---L.