Ancient Air

[khiemtran]

I generally prefer Du Fu to Li Bai, but I'm really starting to like this one by Li Bai.

Translation from chinese-poems.com:

I climb up high and look on the four seas,
Heaven and earth spreading out so far.
Frost blankets all the stuff of autumn,
The wind blows with the great desert's cold.
The eastward-flowing water is immense,
All the ten thousand things billow.
The white sun's passing brightness fades,
Floating clouds seem to have no end.
Swallows and sparrows nest in the wutong tree,
Yuan and luan birds perch among jujube thorns.
Now it's time to head on back again,
I flick my sword and sing Taking the Hard Road.

Sometimes we all have our mountains to climb...

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I always feel my heart swell whenever I read the phrase the ten thousand things

The white sun's passing brightness fades,
Floating clouds seem to have no end

I can see that sky.

It's a beautiful poem--so expansive. Melancholy of autumn, but with determination and hope in it too.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's also typical of Li in the way he takes grandeur and then brings it back to focus on a human scale. It does make me want to go sit on a mountain top again.