Asking the Bamboo

Asking the Bamboo

by Wang Yin

O, my lovely lone bamboo:

I must bid you farewell soon.

If to lose each other is our fate

Who yet shall high repute sustain?

Wang Yin, born in Anhui Province, was a poet in the Ming Dynasty. Chinese literati love to compare themselves to bamboo, because in Chinese culture, bamboo is a symbol of upright moral character.