Written in Reply to an Imperial Poem: Spring View in Rain
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
黄山旧绕汉宫斜。
銮舆迥出千门柳，
阁道回看上苑花。
云里帝城双凤阙，
雨中春树万人家。
为乘阳气行时令，
不是宸游玩物华。
English translation
The Wei River winds along the bends of the Qin frontier, Mount Huang of old girdles the sloping Han palaces.
The imperial carriage comes far out past a thousand willow gates, from the gallery road we look back at the flowers of the royal park.
In the clouds, the imperial city's twin phoenix towers, in rain, spring trees and ten thousand homes.
It is to ride the rising air and keep the season's command, not that the sovereign amuses himself with the splendor of things.
Meaning
The Wei River winds eastward around the passes of Qin, and Mount Huanglu embraces the Han palaces as it has always done.
The imperial carriage goes out beyond a thousand palace gates lined with willows, and looking back from the covered way, the flowers of Shanglin Park are like brocade.
In the emperor's city the phoenix towers and phoenix pavilions rise into the clouds, and the spring rain moistens the trees of a thousand homes till the beauty is beyond telling.
It is to hold fast the season of spring and to care for the people's troubles that he goes abroad — not to take his carriage out for the mere pleasure of spring scenery.
Background
Read the background
In 735 (the twenty-third year of Kaiyuan), a covered gallery was built running from the Great Luminous Palace by way of the Xingqing Palace all the way to Qujiang, the scenic area in the southeast of the city, so that the emperor, his consorts, and his concubines could go directly to Qujiang along the gallery. This seven-character regulated poem by Wang Wei is a matching piece written when Emperor Xuanzong of Tang went out along the gallery and, viewing the spring in the rain, composed a poem.