Autumn Climb to the Temple on Duke Wu's Terrace for a Distant View
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
秋日望乡心。
野寺来人少，
云峰隔水深。
夕阳依旧垒，
寒磬满空林。
惆怅南朝事，
长江独至今。
English translation
The ancient terrace has shed all its leaves, on an autumn day my heart turns toward home.
Few come to the country temple, clouded peaks lie deep across the water.
The setting sun rests on the old ramparts, the cold chime fills the empty woods.
I brood on the affairs of the Southern Dynasties, while the Yangtze alone flows on to this day.
Meaning
The old Wu Gong Terrace has long lain ruined and broken, and on an autumn day I climb high and gaze far, and homesickness rises of itself.
Few travelers come and go at the deserted old temple, and the cloud-wrapped peaks, cut off by deep water, look remote and dim.
The setting sun still slants over the terrace of old Lord Wu, and the cold clear sound of the stone chime echoes in the empty woods.
I grieve over the past of the Southern Dynasties and am filled with melancholy; only the Yangtze flows on from ancient times to today.
Background
Read the background
This poem was written while Liu Zhangqing was living as a sojourner at Yangzhou. After the An Lushan Rebellion broke out, Luoyang, where Liu Zhangqing had long lived, fell into the hands of the rebel armies, and the poet was forced to flee to the Yangzhou area in Jiangsu; climbing high on an autumn day, he came to the Terrace of Lord Wu and wrote this poem meditating on the past.