120. Seeing Off Censor Li on His Return to His Estate at Hanyang | Liu Changqing

题是「送」，但全诗几乎不写送别的情谊，只写李中丞这个人：他曾经的军功、罢官后的窘境、老去的处境，最后是归途的茫然。这种写法把送别诗从「我的不舍」转到「你的境遇」上。作者本人只在末句现身一次，用「欲何之」三个字代为发问，位置摆得很低——这也是对一位失势老将最合适的位置。

The title says farewell, but the poem barely touches the farewell. It stays on Li himself: his past commands, his straits after dismissal, his age, and at last the bewilderment of the road home. The shift takes the poem off "my reluctance" and onto "your situation." The author appears only once, in the last line, asking "where will he go" on the other man's behalf, and stands low — which is exactly the right place to stand beside a general who has lost his position.

这三个字可以读成颂扬，也可以读成反讽，还可以读成自我安慰。刘长卿把这个不稳定的短语放在第二联正中，恰恰是它的好处：无论哪种读法，罢官的损失都在。「无旧业」与「恋明时」成一对比——就算时代真的好，他也没有家业、没有差事，好时代不属于他。

The phrase can be read as praise, as irony, or as self-consolation. That instability is exactly why Liu Changqing puts it at the centre of the second couplet: under any reading, the loss of office stands. "No old estate" against "clinging to a bright age" makes a contrast — even if the times were good, he has no estate and no post; the good age is not his.

末句的问号不是自问，是作者替对方问的。这个安排让全诗的情感有处可去：作者知道答案不好，所以不自己回答，也不安慰。前六句全用陈述句，把事实一条条摆出来，末句忽然改问，节奏一变，所有事实就都变成了疑问的理由。这是唐诗收尾常用的手法——用句式的变化代替抒情的加强。

The question mark is not the poet asking himself; he asks it for the other man. That arrangement gives the feeling somewhere to go: the poet knows the answer is bad, so he neither supplies it nor consoles. The first six lines are all statements, facts set down one by one, and the sudden turn to a question changes the rhythm, so that every fact becomes a reason to ask. This is a standard Tang ending — a change of syntax in place of louder feeling.