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From this immortal lookout, look at Wucheng Tower:
The landscape cold, so cold, rain pausing for the night.
The distant mountains join the evening with Qin trees—
The sounds of pounding announce it’s autumn to the Han Palace.
The sparse pine shadows fall on the still and empty altar
And thin grass fragrance guards the small and tranquil cave.
Why would you seek for it outside the mortal world?
The realms of men possess as well this Cinnabar Hill.
同题仙游观
仙台初见五城楼，
风物凄凄宿雨收。
山色遥连秦树晚，
砧声近报汉宫秋。
疏松影落空坛静，
细草香闲小洞幽。
何用别寻方外去？
人间亦自有丹丘。
The Daoist monastery in question is on Mt. Song in Henan, not far from the traditional frontier of the Qin region (modern Shaanxi). Wucheng (“five city”) Tower was a place of worship supposedly built by the Yellow Emperor, to which Xianyou (“wandering immortal”) is being flatteringly compared. The pounding of washing summer-weight clothes before storing them for winter is a canonical sound of autumn. Daoist temples often had a cave used for certain rites, and a “cinnabar hill” is a dwelling for a Daoist immortal.
---L.
The landscape cold, so cold, rain pausing for the night.
The distant mountains join the evening with Qin trees—
The sounds of pounding announce it’s autumn to the Han Palace.
The sparse pine shadows fall on the still and empty altar
And thin grass fragrance guards the small and tranquil cave.
Why would you seek for it outside the mortal world?
The realms of men possess as well this Cinnabar Hill.
同题仙游观
仙台初见五城楼，
风物凄凄宿雨收。
山色遥连秦树晚，
砧声近报汉宫秋。
疏松影落空坛静，
细草香闲小洞幽。
何用别寻方外去？
人间亦自有丹丘。
The Daoist monastery in question is on Mt. Song in Henan, not far from the traditional frontier of the Qin region (modern Shaanxi). Wucheng (“five city”) Tower was a place of worship supposedly built by the Yellow Emperor, to which Xianyou (“wandering immortal”) is being flatteringly compared. The pounding of washing summer-weight clothes before storing them for winter is a canonical sound of autumn. Daoist temples often had a cave used for certain rites, and a “cinnabar hill” is a dwelling for a Daoist immortal.
---L.