Climbing the Yueyang Tower
Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty
In the past I heard about the water in Dongting, now I am going up to the Yueyang Tower. To the southeast of Wu and Chu, the sun and moon float in the sky.
There are no relatives and friends, and there are no old and sick people. The soldiers and horses pass through the north of the mountain, and Pingxuan Tisi flows.
The first half of the poem praises the magnificence of Dongting Lake. It is a famous sentence about Dongting Lake throughout the ages. It is also recited by people together with the famous sentence in Meng Haoran's "Looking at Dongting Lake and Presenting to Prime Minister Zhang". The second half is lyrical. The whole poem has a rich artistic conception and majestic momentum. Although it is sad, it does not feel decadent. "Tang Zixi Wenlu": "Passing the Yueyang Tower, I can see the beautiful poems of Du Zi, but the poems are only forty years old. The atmosphere is grand and profound, and it almost competes with Dongting Lake for supremacy. The so-called wealth is beyond words." "Tiaoxi Yuyincong Hua" Quote from "Western Qing Dynasty Poems": "Dongting is a spectacular place in the world, and many poets and poets have mentioned it since ancient times... However, it is not like Meng Haoran's "Steaming clouds dreaming over the lake, and waves shaking Yueyang City", then the Dongting is empty and majestic. , as it is now. When I read Du Zimei's poem, it is not the case. "The world is floating day and night in the southeast of Wu and Chu." >Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty
The wind is strong and the sky is high, the apes are howling in mourning, and the white birds are flying back from the clear sand in Zhu.
The endless falling trees rustle, and the endless Yangtze River rolls in.
The sad autumn of thousands of miles is often a guest, and the one who has been sick for a hundred years appears alone on the stage.
Hard and bitter, I hate the frost on my temples, and my wine glass becomes muddy when I am depressed.
This poem was written by Du Fu when he was in Kuizhou in the autumn of the second year of Dali (767). At that time, the poet was ill in Kuizhou, which was located on the bank of the Yangtze River. The whole poem, through the scenery of the Autumn River seen from a high altitude, expresses the poet's complex emotions of wandering around for many years, being old, sick and lonely. It is impassioned and touching. Yang Lun praised this poem as "the first seven-character verse in Du's collection" ("Du Shi Jingquan"). Hu Yinglin's "Shi Sou" even praised this poem as the best seven-character verse in ancient and modern times.
The first four sentences describe the experience gained from climbing high. First couplet. The poet focused on the specific environment of Kuizhou and used the word "fengji" to drive the whole couplet. From the beginning, he wrote a good sentence that has been passed down through the ages. Kuizhou is famous for its large number of apes, and the Xiakou is famous for its strong winds. It's a crisp autumn day, but it's windy here. The poet climbed to a high place, and the sound of "the high ape roaring" kept coming from the gorge, which had the meaning of "the sound is heard in the empty valley, and the sorrow lasts for a long time" ("Shui Jing Zhu·Jiang Shui"). The poet moved his gaze from the heights to the river and Zhouzhu. On the background of clear water and white sand, there are dotted with flocks of birds flying in the wind and constantly circling. It is really a beautiful picture. Among them are the sky, the wind, the sand, the river, and the roar of the ape. Birds fly, created by heaven and earth, and naturally come into pairs. Not only are the upper and lower sentences corresponding, but there are also self-contrasts within the sentences, such as "sky" vs. "wind" in the previous sentence; "gao" vs. "ji"; "sha" vs. "Zhu", "white" vs. "qing" in the next sentence. It reads rhythmically. After the poet's artistic refinement, the fourteen words are precise and accurate, and none of them are false. The use of words is "all thanks to the ax and chisel", reaching a wonderful and indescribable state. What is more noteworthy is that in the first sentence of the couplet, the oblique tone is often used for the last word, but this poem uses the flat tone to rhyme. Shen Deqian was praised for his "reuse of rhyme in the two-sentence couplets, which changes the style" ("Biecai of Tang Poems").
Both poems are masterpieces by Du Fu, both are generous and heroic, but the latter one is slightly desolate.