You have a thousand shapes in flakes or piles in vain;
Hidden in mountains or on water you remain.
The drought is so severe that all seedlings would die.
Why won't you come down but leisurely tower high?
Original Poem:
「云」
来鹄
千形万象竟还空，映水藏山片复重。
无限旱苗枯欲尽，悠悠闲处作奇峰。
Interpretation:
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, warlords and warlords, but also a severe drought, agricultural production is barren, the majority of the people suffer, the journey to the swan saw the unpredictable clouds have a feeling, so he created this poem.
The first two lines: the image of drought clouds in a thousand shapes and sizes competing to return to the sky, overlapping pieces of hidden into the mountains into the water.
The poet was watching the changing clouds with the anxious feeling of long drought and hoping for sweet rain. To him, the summer clouds in a thousand shapes and sizes do not have any practical significance. The clouds keep on conjuring up various images, and the poet keeps on repeating his hope and disappointment, and finally, the clouds drift away with the wind and vanish into thin air, and the poet's hope is finally completely dashed. Though the cloud changes and disappears, those who hope for sweet rain are still searching for it. It is as if it is deliberately playing hide-and-seek with the people: looking everywhere, suddenly looking down, but finding its reflection in the water; suddenly looking up, but seeing it was hidden behind the mountain.
The last two lines: countless dry seedlings are drying up and wanting to die in the hope of sweet rain, while the clouds in the air are leisurely turning into strange peaks.
On the one hand, there are a large number of dry seedlings dying and looking forward to sweet rain, but on the other hand, the clouds are high up in the sky, leisurely and at ease, transforming into strange peaks for self-appreciation. It is in the contrasting description of the ups and downs, the poet to the image of the clouds added the finishing touch, the feelings of hate so summer clouds to the climax.
The poem does not seem to be simply about the feelings of longing for rain and hating the dry clouds. When people anxiously look forward to the clouds to rain, it is leisurely and inactive. It goes without saying that this is a satire on the dignified appearance of those high officials in the olden days who could have done something for the people.
Poem translator:
Xu Yuan-chong (许渊冲)
About the poet:
Lai Hu (来鹄), ? - 883 A.D., a poet of the Tang Dynasty, was a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi. His family was poor, good at writing poems, and he lived in seclusion in the mountains and lakes.
