Tang Libai
Rizhao incense burner produces purple smoke,
Looking at the waterfall hanging in front of Sichuan.
Flying down from 3,000 feet,
It's been nine days since I suspected that the Milky Way had set.
[Appreciation]
Li Bai has traveled many famous mountains and rivers in his life, and he loves the scenery of Lushan Mountain very much. It can be seen from his poems such as "Passing away from the World" (one of the waterfalls looking at Lushan Mountain) that he had the idea of retiring from Lushan Mountain in his later years. This poem may be the work of his later years. "Looking at Lushan Waterfall" has two songs, the first one is a five-character ancient style, and the second one is here, which is a seven-character quatrain.
This is a poem about scenery. The poet looked at the scenery from a distance under the incense burner peak of Lushan Mountain. He first looked from the incense burner peak above, "Rizhao incense burner gives birth to purple smoke", the sun shines on the incense burner peak, and purple smoke rises in the incense burner. Smoke is generally grayish white. Why is the smoke here purple? Because there is a waterfall under the incense burner peak, water vapor transpiration, mixed with cloud gas and sunlight, reflects purple, and from a distance, purple smoke clouds hover around the peak shaped like incense burners. How beautiful the scenery is! Smoke from incense burner is a common thing, and poets use it to describe the wonderful landscape of incense burner peak.
Then look down at Xianglu Peak Waterfall. "Looking at the waterfall before the river", from a distance, a waterfall hangs on the water in front. The most vivid thing here is the word "hang". Waterfall is originally water that suddenly pours down from the mountain wall. From a distance, it looks like a cloth hanging, so it is called a waterfall. The author uses the word "hang" to describe it from top to bottom, which is very vivid. There is a poem "Hanging 300 feet" in the poem "Looking at Lushan Waterfall", which also uses "hanging" to describe Xianglufeng Waterfall.
The third and fourth sentences further describe the waterfall, "flying straight down", which describes the rapid situation of the waterfall rushing straight down from the high mountain wall. "Three thousands of feet" is an exaggerated figure, which, like the above-mentioned "hanging 300 feet", exaggerates the momentum of the waterfall flying down from the extremely high place of the steep mountain wall. The last sentence "Suspected that the Milky Way has fallen for nine days" means that people suspect that the Milky Way has fallen from the extremely high sky. The Milky Way is a silvery white band of light that surrounds the sky on a clear night. It is both spectacular and full of mysterious beauty. This is a natural astronomical wonder. Using the Milky Way to compare waterfalls shows the magnificent wonders of waterfalls, which is really ingenious. When using this metaphor, the poet does not use the word "alike" or "alike", but uses the word "doubtful" to deliberately say that it is true or false, emphasizing the fidelity of the similarity between the two.
This poem uses rich imagination, metaphor and exaggeration to show the unique charm of Lushan Waterfall, and also embodies the spirit of the great poet Li Bai.