Meditations on Ancient Sites: No. 1
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
漂泊西南天地间。
三峡楼台淹日月，
五溪衣服共云山。
羯胡事主终无赖，
词客哀时且未还。
庾信平生最萧瑟，
暮年诗赋动江关。
English translation
Torn and scattered in the northeast, amid wind and dust, drifting in the southwest, between heaven and earth.
The towers of the Three Gorges have drowned the sun and moon, the dress of the Five Streams shares the clouded hills.
The Jie Tartar, serving his lord, was faithless to the end, the poet, grieving for his age, has not yet gone home.
Yu Xin's whole life was most desolate, in his later years his poems and rhapsodies stirred the river lands.
Meaning
War and tumult within the passes drove the people from their homes; fleeing the strife, I wandered and drifted to the southwest.
Long have I lingered by the terraces of the Three Gorges, wearing away the days and months, dwelling with the peoples of the Five Streams within one ring of clouded hills.
The Jie Hu are deceitful in serving their lord and can never be relied upon; the poet who grieves for the age has not yet returned.
Of all lives, that of Yu Xin of the Liang was most desolate; the poems and rhapsodies he wrote in his later years stirred the river towns.
Background
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These poems sing of ancient sites and commemorate men of old, and thereby give voice to the poet's own feelings. In 766, the first year of the Dali era of Emperor Daizong of Tang, the poet left Kuizhou, passed through the Three Gorges, and reached Jiangling, visiting in turn the house of Song Yu, the old dwelling of Yu Xin, Zhaojun Village, Yong'an Palace, the Temple of the Late Lord, and the Temple of the Marquis of Wu. Profoundly reverent toward the men of talent, the great beauties, the heroes, and the famous ministers of antiquity, he wrote the five poems "Meditations on Ancient Sites" to express his feelings; this poem is one of them.