At this lofty tower where the town ends, wilderness begins;
And our longing has as far to go as the ocean or the sky…
Hibiscus-flowers by the moat heave in a sudden wind,
And vines along the wall are whipped with slanting rain.
Nothing to see for three hundred miles but a blur of woods and mountain --
And the river's nine loops, twisting in our bowels…
This is where they have sent us, this land of tattooed people --
And not even letters, to keep us in touch with home.
Original Poem:
「登柳州城楼寄漳汀封连四州」
柳宗元
城上高楼接大荒， 海天愁思正茫茫。
惊风乱飐芙蓉水， 密雨斜侵薜荔墙。
岭树重遮千里目， 江流曲似九回肠。
共来百越文身地， 犹自音书滞一乡。
Interpretation:
This is the poet was relegated to Liuzhou, through the Liuzhou city tower of what they see and think and feel and write down the remembrance of the same relegation of friends of the poem.
The first and second lines: climbed the tower, the very sight is a desolate and cold vast sand field, such as the sea like the sky of sadness suddenly from the heart.
First, I wrote about what I saw and felt when I climbed the building. Once the poet arrived in Liuzhou, he couldn't wait to climb the tower to look at his friend's urgent feelings. Standing higher and higher, looking farther and farther away, see the thought of very keen. Because the five of them were persecuted, the fate of the related, sincere friendship, although the sky is different, but the feeling of longing can not be.
The third and fourth sentences: the rush of the wind haphazardly lifted the lotus in the water, the dense rain hit the wall full of Ficus carica.
Write near scene. Liuzhou summer rain and wind of the bad, in this wind and rain in the “hibiscus” and wall “Ficus”, although suffered from the destruction, but they still stand lofty, fragrant nose.
The fifth and sixth sentences: layers of rolling hills, blocking the view of the distant horizon, the curved Liujiang River is like a hundred knots of my sadness.
Write a distant scene. From near to far, looking at the distant friends in distress, looking up at the heavy mountains, dense forests, blocking the sight of thousands of miles; looking down at the river twists and turns, like a nine-curve intestines. These two lines write out the poet to the distant four friends look forward to each other, the pain of longing for each other.
Seventh, eight lines: we came together to this remote barbaric land, how can the sound of the book isolation, people on one side.
This is a generalization of the situation of the five of us. We are all together exiled to such a desolate place, already painful enough, even more difficult is even the sound of the book can not communicate with each other greetings. The poet's love for his friends, the song of the sound of the remaining, curling constantly, people for the pain.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Liu Zongyuan (柳宗元), 773-819 A.D., a native of Yongji, Shanxi, was a progressive thinker, brilliant writer, and revolutionary statesman of the Tang Dynasty. Nineteen years before he was born, the An Shi Rebellion broke out, which dramatically changed the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline. The subsequent failure of the Yongzhen Reform was a historical tragedy that cut short Liu Zongyuan's political future, but made him one of the leading thinkers and literary figures of the Tang Dynasty.
