Ascending a Tower, Du Fu (300 Tang Shi #187)

The flowers by the tower wound this traveler’s spirit—
Ten-thousand hardships, this ascent to see a vista.
Spring colors on Jin River approach heaven and earth.
Mt. Yulei’s floating clouds shifted back then and now.
The North Star’s morning court remains unchanged in the end.
The western mountain’s bandits—they don’t dare raid us.
Pity that second king in his ancestral hall,
Returning at sunset to recite the “Liangfu Song.”

登楼
花近高楼伤客心，
万方多难此登临。
锦江春色来天地，
玉垒浮云变古今。
北极朝庭终不改，
西山寇盗莫相侵。
可怜后主还祠庙，
日暮聊为梁父吟。

The Jin (“brocade”) flows through Chengdu and Yulei (“jade rampart”) is to the west. Polaris was a common symbol for the imperial court, while the bandits are Tibetan soldiers (see #184). Despite line 6, Tibetans were repeatedly raiding Sichuan. The second ruler of the kingdom of Shu was Liu Shan (see #182) and the “Liangfu Song” (named after a lesser peak of Mt Tai in Shandong, one of the five sacred mountains) was a folk song sometimes sung at burials—the implication is that we’re to pity him for burying Zhuge Liang (see #182 again) because his kingdom’s troubles are about to get worse.

Overall, a bit associative and jumpy.

---L.