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Loyang was the T’ang dynasty’s eastern capital and was located at the edge of the Yellow River floodplain, 300 kilometers north of Meng’s home. Although he remained an outsider, Meng’s reputation as a poet made him welcome in the highest levels of society. But on this trip he failed to meet an official to whom he had written earlier. The man had been demoted for taking the responsibilities of his post too literally—censors were charged with reporting improper conduct and harmful policies to the emperor—and he had been banished to Chiangling, the mountainous area of the Tayu Range that separates the Kan River watershed from the semitropical South. Meng sent this poem to express both his disappointment and his sympathy. In the temperate North, the plum flowers during the lunar New Year and marks the start of spring, which is a time when families make every effort to be together.

Calling on Censor Yuan without Success

MENG HAO-JAN

In Loyang I tried to visit you sir

to Chiangling you were banished

the plum I hear flowers earlier there

but how could spring compare