Climbing the Stork Tower
The sun sets over the mountains and the Yellow River flows into the sea.
If you want to see a thousand miles away, take it to the next level.
Notes
1. Stork Tower: The former site is in Yongji County, Shanxi Province. The three-story building faces Zhongtiao Mountain in front and the Yellow River below. Legend has it that storks often stop here, hence the name.
2． Day: sun.
3. Yi: rely on.
4. Exhaust: disappear. This sentence means that the sun sets against the mountains.
5. Exhaustion: to exhaust, to reach the extreme.
6． Clairvoyance: broad vision.
7. Update: replace, replace. (Not the commonly understood meaning of "Zai")
Translation
The setting sun slowly sank against the Western Mountains,
The mighty Yellow River rushed towards the East China Sea.
If you want to see enough of the thousands of miles of scenery,
you have to climb to a higher tower.
Appreciation
This poem describes the extraordinary ambition shown by the poet when he climbed high and looked into the distance, reflecting the positive and enterprising spirit of people in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Among them, the first two sentences describe what you see. "The sun is over the mountains" describes the distant view, the mountains, the scenery seen from climbing the tower, "The Yellow River flows into the sea" describes the close-up, and the water describes the scene as spectacular and majestic. Here, the poet uses extremely simple and superficial language, which is both highly vivid and highly summarized, and includes the thousands of miles of rivers and mountains that have entered the broad field of vision into just ten words; and when future generations read these ten words in a thousand years, they will It's like being there, seeing the scene, and it opens your mind.
The first sentence is about looking at the setting sun in the distance, sinking towards the endless rolling mountains in front of the building, and slowly disappearing at the end of the field of vision. This is a sky view, a distant view, and a westward view. The second sentence is about watching the Yellow River flowing under the front of the building roaring and rolling south, then turning eastward in the distance and flowing back to the sea. This is looking from the ground to the horizon, from near to far, from west to east. When these two lines of poetry are combined, the scenery above and below, far and near, and east and west, are all included in the poem, making the picture appear particularly broad and far-reaching. As far as the second line of the poem is concerned, the poet is on the stork tower and cannot see the Yellow River entering the sea. What is written in the line is the poet's intended scene as he watches the Yellow River go away to the horizon. It is a fusion of the current scene and the intended scene. Written as one. Writing this way adds to the breadth and depth of the picture. Calling the sun "white day" is a realistic style. The setting sun hugs the mountain, the clouds cover the fog, and the weakened sun's brilliance appears even dimmer at this time, so the poet directly observed the wonders of the "white sun". As for the "Yellow River". Of course it is also realistic. It is like a golden streamer, flying among the mountains. What appears before the poet's eyes is a magnificent picture of brilliance and splendor. The picture is still in a state of flux. The sun disappears over the mountains, which is just a very short-term process; the Yellow River flows towards the sea, but it is an eternal movement. If you say. This kind of scenery is beautiful, so it is a dynamic beauty, a lively beauty full of infinite vitality. This is not the so-called "fixed frame", nor is it a treasured fossil or specimen. The readers are deeply impressed by the poet's generosity.
Write what you think in the last two sentences. "Wish to see a thousand miles away" describes the poet's endless desire to explore. He also wants to see further and see the places that his eyes can reach. The only way is to stand higher and "go to a higher level." building". "Thousands of miles" and "one level" are both imaginary numbers, representing the vertical and horizontal spaces in the poet's imagination. The words "desire to be poor" and "better" contain so much hope and longing. These two lines of poetry are famous lines that have been passed down through the ages. They are unique and unexpected, and they are very natural and closely connected with the first two lines of poetry. At the same time, the use of the word "lou" at the end also raises some questions. The effect shows that this is a poem about climbing a building.
From the second half of the poem, it can be inferred that the first half may be about what he saw on the second floor, and the poet wanted to further see the distant scenery as far as he could, and even climbed up the stairs. top layer. The poem seems to describe the process of climbing the stairs in a straightforward manner, but it has far-reaching implications and is inviting to explore. Here is the poet's enterprising spirit and far-sighted mind, and also expresses the philosophy that one must stand tall to see far.
As far as the writing characteristics of the whole poem are concerned, this poem is what the Japanese monk Kukai said in "Bunjing Mifu Lun", "the scenery enters the realm of reason". Some people say that reasoning is taboo in poetry. This should only mean that poetry should not reason rigidly, boringly, and abstractly, but not that philosophy cannot be revealed and promoted in poetry. Like this poem, the truth is blended with the scenery and emotions so seamlessly that the reader does not feel that it is reasoning, but that the truth is within it. This is an example of using image thinking to show the philosophy of life based on the characteristics of poetry.
This poem also has another characteristic in its writing: it is a quatrain that uses antithesis throughout. In the first two sentences, the two nouns "white sun" and "yellow river" are opposite, the two colors "white" and "yellow" are opposite, and the two verbs "yi" and "enter" are opposite. The same goes for the last two sentences, which constitute formal perfection. When Shen De selected this poem in "Tang Poetry Farewell", he pointed out: "The four words are all correct, and it is not distasteful to read, so the bones are high." There are only two couplets in total, and both couplets use antitheses. , if it is not vigorous and coherent, it can easily become dull or fragmented.
In this poem, the former couplet uses the correct name pair, the so-called "right and opposite", the sentences are extremely neat, thick and powerful, which further shows the majesty of the scene written; the latter couplet uses, although the two sentences are opposite, But there was no trace of a confrontation. Therefore, the poet's use of antithesis skills is also very mature.