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Demoted for three years to this, a long-term ‘perch’—
Through vast ages but a pause, that Chu guest’s sorrow.
Alone in autumn grasses, I seek that person now
Fruitlessly in cold woods—I see the slanting sunset.
Emperor Wen was wise yet his forbearance weak.
Xiang River didn’t care, for how could it know mourning?
Still, so still, this landscape, a place of shaking and falling.
A pity—how did you arrive at the sky’s edge?
长沙过贾谊宅
三年谪宦此栖迟，
万古惟留楚客悲。
秋草独寻人去后，
寒林空见日斜时。
汉文有道恩犹薄，
湘水无情吊岂知？
寂寂江山摇落处，
怜君何事到天涯？
Jia Yi was a writer and statesman of the early Han Dynasty, and Liu Changqing (a writer and statesman of the mid Tang Dynasty) wrote about him before in #137. The relevant biofacts: Han Emperor Wen demoted Jia Yi to be Grand Tutor to the child ruler of the client kingdom of Changsha, where he stayed for roughly four years. Idioms: was wise is literally “had the Way,” as in the Dao, and landscape is literally “rivers (and) mountains.” The Xiang runs through Changsha.
Now this is closer to what I think of as poetic thoughts on a historical site.
---L.
Through vast ages but a pause, that Chu guest’s sorrow.
Alone in autumn grasses, I seek that person now
Fruitlessly in cold woods—I see the slanting sunset.
Emperor Wen was wise yet his forbearance weak.
Xiang River didn’t care, for how could it know mourning?
Still, so still, this landscape, a place of shaking and falling.
A pity—how did you arrive at the sky’s edge?
长沙过贾谊宅
三年谪宦此栖迟，
万古惟留楚客悲。
秋草独寻人去后，
寒林空见日斜时。
汉文有道恩犹薄，
湘水无情吊岂知？
寂寂江山摇落处，
怜君何事到天涯？
Jia Yi was a writer and statesman of the early Han Dynasty, and Liu Changqing (a writer and statesman of the mid Tang Dynasty) wrote about him before in #137. The relevant biofacts: Han Emperor Wen demoted Jia Yi to be Grand Tutor to the child ruler of the client kingdom of Changsha, where he stayed for roughly four years. Idioms: was wise is literally “had the Way,” as in the Dao, and landscape is literally “rivers (and) mountains.” The Xiang runs through Changsha.
Now this is closer to what I think of as poetic thoughts on a historical site.
---L.