"Beside the sunken boat a thousand sails go by; before the sick tree ten thousand trees greet the spring" comes from Liu Yuxi's reply to Bai Juyi.
Tips
history
In 826 刘禹锡 was recalled after twenty-three years of exile in the south, and at a banquet in 扬州 he met 白居易, whose courtesy name was 乐天. Bai wrote him a poem lamenting his wasted years; this is the reply.
culture
The reply opens 巴山楚水凄凉地，二十三年弃置身, 'twenty-three years cast away in the bleak lands of Ba and Chu', then turns defiant: the world moves on past a wrecked boat and a dying tree, and so will he.
