It opens
人事有代谢，
往来成古今。 'Human affairs give way to one another; their comings and goings make past and present.' It ends
羊公碑尚在，
读罢泪沾襟。 'Lord Yang's stele still stands; I read it, and tears wet my robe.'
羊祜, a Western Jin general stationed at Xiangyang, used to climb this hill and grieve that so many who had climbed it before him were forgotten, and the stele set up there in his memory became known as the Stele of Falling Tears.
