In a sharp gale from the wide sky apes are whimpering,
Birds are flying homeward over the clear lake and white sand,
Leaves are dropping down like the spray of a waterfall,
While I watch the long river always rolling on.
I have come three thousand miles away. Sad now with autumn
And with my hundred years of woe, I climb this height alone.
Ill fortune has laid a bitter frost on my temples,
Heart-ache and weariness are a thick dust in my wine.
Original Poem:
「登高」
杜甫
风急天高猿啸哀， 渚清沙白鸟飞回。
无边落木萧萧下， 不尽长江滚滚来。
万里悲秋常作客， 百年多病独登台。
艰难苦恨繁霜鬓， 潦倒新停浊酒杯。
Interpretation:
This poem was written around the fall of 767 A.D. The poet was writing about his inner feelings when he ascended the heights on the Chongyang Festival in Fengjie, Chongqing.
In the first line, the apes and monkeys cry in the wind and sky, and the birds fly and hover in the wind on the clear water and white sand of the river.
In a few words, it draws the unique late autumn scenery of Kui Zhou area seen from a distance, reproducing the situation of the Three Gorges area with high mountains and steep gorges and strong winds, and the poet's line of sight turns to the Yangtze River water from a high place, only to see groups of waterfowl flying in the wind and circling back and forth. This is an exquisite autumn scene, but also reveals a trace of sadness and elegance of autumn.
The second couplet: the boundless trees are floating down the fallen leaves, and the Yangtze River water is rolling and rushing.
The poet looks at the mountains from afar, the boundless trees, the leaves fluttering and falling, a solemn scene; looking down on the Yangtze River, the endless flow, rolling.
The third link: the sadness of the autumn scene lamented away from his hometown for a long time wandering, late in life, disease-ridden today alone on the high platform.
By the Xiaoxiao fallen trees associated with their own, how many years of exile, wandering, traveling thousands of miles, as a guest of his hometown, and now more than half a hundred, has reached the twilight of the body sick, and alone on the heights, which is how lonely situation.
The last line: tough to the extreme, a lot of sorrow, pale sideburns such as frost and snow; life disillusioned, just stop the hand loaded with turbid wine cup.
The poet looks back on a life of hardship and bitterness, downtrodden taste, national difficulties and family worries, not away from their own arms, and thus gray hair more and more days, coupled with alcohol withdrawal due to illness, the sadness is more difficult to dispel.
Poet in this poem on the occasion of the Chung Yeung ascent, during the period in Kui Zhou, thinking of the country, family, friends, life pressure of all kinds of hardship, sadness and suffering gathered in the pen, back and forth staccato, somber and sad.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Du Fu (杜甫), 712 - 770 AD, was a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, known as the "Sage of Poetry". Born into a declining bureaucratic family, Du Fu had a rough life, and his turbulent and dislocated life made him keenly aware of the plight of the masses. Therefore, his poems were always closely related to the current affairs, reflecting the social life of that era in a more comprehensive way, with profound thoughts and a broad realm. In his poetic art, he was able to combine many styles, forming a unique style of "profound and thick", and becoming a great realist poet in the history of China.
