Original poem:
There is a dark snow-capped mountain in Qinghai, with long white clouds and a lonely city looking at Yumenguan.
Yellow sand wears golden armor in hundreds of battles, but the loulan is not returned.
Translation:
Qinghai Lake is covered with dark clouds, and the continuous snow-capped mountains are bleak. Yumen, the ancient city of frontier fortress, is a grand pass, thousands of miles away, facing each other from afar. The soldiers guarding the border have been through many battles, their armor is worn out, their ambitions are immortal, and they will never return to their hometown until they defeat the invading enemy.
Source: Seven Songs of Military Service (IV) by Wang Changling in Tang Dynasty.
Poetry appreciation
An important ideological feature of the excellent frontier poems in the prosperous Tang Dynasty is that while expressing the lofty sentiments and ambitions of the frontier guards, they do not shy away from the hardships of war. This article is an obvious example. It can be said that three or four sentences are not empty and superficial lyricism, but only one or two sentences of rich environmental description are needed. The high unity of typical environment and characters' feelings is a prominent advantage of Wang Changling's quatrains, which is also clearly reflected in this paper.