“Good Things Are Coming: Feelings of Hearing the Music of Jiaofang at the Banquet in Bianjing” is a poem written by Han Yuanji, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the ninth year of the Qiandao reign of the Song Dynasty (1173), the poet was sent as an envoy to congratulate the birthday of Emperor Shizong of the Jin Dynasty. This poem was written after the Jin court gave a banquet. The first stanza uses the allusion of the An Lushan rebels forcing the children of the opera to play music, which is a metaphor for the fact that he was sent to the Jin court for a banquet. The music of the opera is still there, but the country has changed hands, which is extremely sad. The first two lines of the second stanza describe the sorrow of the apricot flowers after the country was destroyed, and they can only “beside the wild smoke”. The water of the “Imperial Canal” was cut off, and he did not want to add to the people’s grief with the sound of “sobbing”. The four lines of the second stanza are all symbolic descriptions, which deeply show the desire to recover his homeland. This poem uses allusions and images to express the author’s feelings of concern for the country.
《好事近·汴京赐宴闻教坊乐有感》是南宋词人韩元吉的词作。宋乾道九年（1173），词人出使贺金主世宗生辰，这首词作于金宫廷赐宴之后。上阕化用安史叛军强令梨园子弟奏乐典故，喻自己使金廷赴宴，梨园声在而江山易主，无比沉痛。下阕开头两句写亡国后，杏花也愁，只能“傍野烟”而发。当年“御沟”水断，不愿再以“呜咽”之声益增民之悲痛。下阕四句，均为象征性描述，深刻地展现了恢复故土的愿望。这首词运用典故，凭借形象，表达了作者感时忧国的情怀。
《好事近·汴京赐宴 闻教坊乐有感》 韩元吉
凝碧旧池头，
一听管弦凄切。
多少梨园声在，
总不堪华发。
杏花无处避春愁，
也傍野烟发。
惟有御沟声断，
似知人呜咽。
Song of Good Event
On Hearing Music as an Envoy at an Banquet in the Lost Capital
Han Yuanji
The pond of green congealed looks as of old,
But now I find pipes and strings sand and cold.
How many old musicians still sing today?
Their songs but turn my hair from black to grey.
Where reigns spring grief, there apricot can’t go;
Only in mist-veiled filed can its flowers blow.
The lonely Royal Moat murmurs around
As human sobbing sound.
