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A Farewell, Passing Jingmen, Li Bai (300 Tang Shi #101)
(Okay, jumping back forward to where I left off two Mays ago.)
I pass through, from far beyond Jingmen,
Come to wander through the land of Chu
Where mountains dissolve, vanish into flat fields,
The river flowing through vast wilderness.
The moon below, a reflection of its flight—
Clouds grow, connected to a mirage.
I still love these waters from my homeland:
Farewell, ten-thousand li—let’s go, my boat.
渡荆门送别
渡远荆门外，
来从楚国游。
山随平野尽，
江入大荒流。
月下飞天镜，
云生结海楼。
仍怜故乡水，
万里送行舟。
A little downstream of the Three Gorges, the Yangzi flows between Mt. Jingmen (“Chu gate”) and Mt. Huya (“tiger fang”), marking the traditional border between mountainous Sichuan (Li Bai's homeland) and flatter Chu (a Warring States kingdom centered on Hubei & Hunan). Idiom: “mirage” is literally sea-tower, and it’s possible that the mirage meaning is a mirage and he's saying the clouds’ reflections look like towers beneath the water.
---L.
I pass through, from far beyond Jingmen,
Come to wander through the land of Chu
Where mountains dissolve, vanish into flat fields,
The river flowing through vast wilderness.
The moon below, a reflection of its flight—
Clouds grow, connected to a mirage.
I still love these waters from my homeland:
Farewell, ten-thousand li—let’s go, my boat.
渡荆门送别
渡远荆门外，
来从楚国游。
山随平野尽，
江入大荒流。
月下飞天镜，
云生结海楼。
仍怜故乡水，
万里送行舟。
A little downstream of the Three Gorges, the Yangzi flows between Mt. Jingmen (“Chu gate”) and Mt. Huya (“tiger fang”), marking the traditional border between mountainous Sichuan (Li Bai's homeland) and flatter Chu (a Warring States kingdom centered on Hubei & Hunan). Idiom: “mirage” is literally sea-tower, and it’s possible that the mirage meaning is a mirage and he's saying the clouds’ reflections look like towers beneath the water.
---L.
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Love the poem.
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