Du Mu: On the Height of Imperial Pleasance

　　On the Height of Imperial Pleasance
　　　　　　　　　　Du Mu (803-852 Tang Dynasty)

The sky is vast, a void devoid of color,
and a bird vanishes into nowhere.
Ten thousand years, too, dissolve and sink
like the lonely bird, without a trace.

Behold there!
On Han mausoleums not a single tree is seen
but unhindered autumn wind
that has blown away all of their majestic enterprises.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　tr. Fan Jinghua

　　登乐游原
　　　　[唐] 杜牧 Du Mu [Tang Dynasty]
长空澹澹孤鸟没，
万古销沉向此中。
看取汉家何事业，
五陵无树起秋风！

　　登climb乐pleasure游tour原wilderness
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　[唐] 杜牧
长vast空sky澹澹thin, light孤lone鸟bird没vanish
万ten thousand古ancient销exhausted沉sink向toward此this中amid
看look取pick up汉Han Dynasty家family何what事events业enterprise
五five陵mausoleum 无no树tree起rise秋autumn风wind

　　登deng1 乐le4 游you2 原yuan2
　　　　　　　　　　　　[唐] 杜牧
长chang2 空kong1 澹澹dan4dan4 孤gu1 鸟niao3 没mo4
万wan1 古gu3 销xiao1 沉chen2 向xiang4 此ci3 中zhong1
看kan1 取qu3 汉han4 家jia1 何he2 事shi4 业ye4
五wu3 陵ling2 无wu2 树shu4 起qi3 秋qiu1 风feng1

　　The Pleasance Height was built in outside of Xi’an for the imperial merry-making and outing by the Han Dynasty, the reign before Tang Dynasty. The five mausoleums also refer to the imperial graves of the Han.
　　This is a very accomplished poem. It is typical of Chinese poetry in its “impersonal” aspect. It seems that the poet does not write about himself, and yet the apparently descriptive quatrain is all about the poet’s view of the world. The poet’s personality permeates the lines.
　　This is a very accomplished poem. It is typical of Chinese poetry in its “impersonal” aspect. It seems that the poet does not write about himself, and yet the apparently descriptive quatrain is all about the poet’s view of the world. The poet’s personality permeates the lines.
　　The poem also typically starts with a view of the sky, which represents the infinity of time and space, and in the infinity there is a bird vanishing without a trace. The comparison between the infinite and the focal point of the bird strengthens the psychological impact from the visual. When the bird vanishes, the eyes lose the focoal point, and then loss becomes psychological. Therefore, the second line (“everything is lost in the sky”) follows naturally. The significance is overt and easy to put across.
　　The third and forth lines are about human endeavor, the “here and now” in time and space. The third line (“Look at those endeavors of Han Dynasty”) follows the previous line about the historical and temporal dimension, while the last line returns to the visible present again. The word “rise” in the last line is very uniquely used, and in Chinese traditional way of commenting on poetry, it can be called the eye of the poem. The word “rise” implies that autumn wind does not show through leaves and it stirs up dust. Dust, of course, has further implications. Nothing remains of the monumental endeavors after only a couple of hundred years. How about an individual?
　　这首诗无论从技术还是主题上来说，都是非常成功的。它也比较能够代表中国古典诗歌的一个写作模式，也就是看似景物描写，全无作者之我，实则是作者从心境到历史观的全面反映。开篇空远也是常用的手法，这比仅仅是指向了时空的无限，也给点面结合的技术创造了条件。以一只孤鸟扣住了眼光，然后让眼光无所落实。这样，视觉上的那种消隐则转化成了一种心理上的回应。因此第二行就将前一行上升到了古来万事的维面上了。第三行承前，从心理时空上的遥远，转接到了历史上的遥远，然后再回到视觉上：曾经宏伟的陵寝如今连一棵树都没活下来，这里的“起”字可谓诗眼，令人看出一种尘土飞扬的感觉，因为没有树叶显示风的存在，因此秋风肯定是吹起了尘土，更进一步暗示了一切皆尘土的意味。

Back-translation into contemporary Chinese

我的英文译文的直接回译是：

　　　《在皇家游乐园高地上》
　　天空无垠，一片无色的空无，
　　一只鸟不知消失到何处。
　　万年岁月也消散而沉落
　　犹如那孤鸟，无影无踪。

　　你看那边！
　　汉朝陵墓上一棵树也看不到，
　　除了毫无阻挡的秋风
　　吹走了他们所有的宏伟工程。