Early plum blossoms bloom on high branches, set against the distant blue skies of Chu. The north wind carries their faint fragrance through the night, and heavy frost adds to their whiteness at dawn. I wish to break off a spray for someone ten thousand miles away, but distant mountains and rivers stand between us. The blossoms in the cold wither in vain; what can I offer to comfort my faraway friend?

迥（jiǒng）: distant, or standing out distinctly. 楚天: the sky over Chu. 朔吹: the north wind. 滋: to add. 寒英: blossoms opening in the cold.

万里赠: sending a broken sprig of plum blossom far away as an expression of affection, related to the ancient tradition of sending plum blossoms. 杳杳: distant and hard to reach. 坐: in vain; to no purpose. 销落: to wither and fall.

远客: a person far away, with an additional sense of traveling away from home; there is no need to identify this definitively as a particular friend unnamed in the title.

Reading guide: Liu Zongyuan moves from the noble purity of early plum blossoms to the inability to send them to someone far away. The first half looks at the flowers; the second considers the barriers to conveying affection. The wish to give them naturally joins the portrayal of an object to longing for a person.

Tall trees, blue sky, fragrance at night, and whiteness at dawn make the plum blossoms especially vivid to both sight and smell. Frost and the north wind convey bitter cold while also setting off the flowers' purity and fragrance.

The second half no longer praises the plum but asks whether it can reach the person far away. The lovelier and more fleeting the blossom, the deeper the regret that it cannot be sent; the final line gathers the flower's passing and the person's loneliness together.