Mountains cover the white sun,
And oceans drain the golden river;
But you widen your view three hundred miles
By going up one flight of stairs.
Original Poem:
「登鹳雀楼」
王昌龄
白日依山尽， 黄河入海流。
欲穷千里目， 更上一层楼。
Interpretation:
This is a masterpiece that has been recited for thousands of years, describing what you see when you look at the distance, celebrating the magnificence of the motherland’s rivers and mountains, expressing the poet’s love for the motherland’s great rivers and mountains, and implying a certain amount of positive philosophies of life.
The first sentence depicts the realistic scenery of the sunset mountains. A round of the setting sun is golden light, in the rolling hills of the west slowly falling, at the end of the field of vision gradually hidden, this is the west view, but also the sky view.
The second line is about the intended scene of overlooking the Yellow River far away from the sky. The poet is facing the great waves of the rolling Yellow River flowing in front of the building, and his line of sight stretches from top to bottom, from near to far, from west to east, following the river into the distance. Although he cannot witness the Yellow River entering the sea, he can give full play to his imagination, as if he sees the Yellow River surging all the way to the sea in a magnificent manner, which is refreshing. This is the east view, but also the land view.
The third and fourth lines write that the poet wants to climb up and see the distance. By the first two lines of the immediate see leads to deep thought and the action of going up to the next level. If you want to see endless beautiful scenery, you should keep climbing upwards to a higher level. The poem seems to be straightforward, but it not only implies the poet’s positive spirit of enterprise, visionary broad-mindedness, but also implies that only standing high can see far, see the philosophy of the whole. The meaning is far-reaching and intriguing.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Wang Zhilu(王之涣), 688-742 AD, was a native of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. Wang Zhilu was a bold and liberal character who liked to sing sad songs with a sword. His poems were so magnificent, passionate and musical that they were sung by musicians at the time and became a sensation. He sang and harmonized with Gao Shi and Wang Changling, and was one of the famous border poets of the Sheng Tang Dynasty. Most of his poems have been lost, and only six of them have survived, all of which are famous.
