Gazing at Jimen Pass
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
笳鼓喧喧汉将营。
万里寒光生积雪，
三边曙色动危旌。
沙场烽火连胡月，
海畔云山拥蓟城。
少小虽非投笔吏，
论功还欲请长缨。
English translation
A single look from Yan Terrace startles the traveler's heart, flutes and drums clamor in the Han general's camp.
Ten thousand li of cold light rise from the drifted snow, the dawn glow on the three frontiers stirs the high banners.
Beacon fires on the sands reach the Tartar moon, clouded hills by the sea embrace the city of Ji.
Though in youth I was no clerk who cast aside the pen, for merit's sake I would still beg a long cord.
Meaning
I climb the Yan Terrace and gaze out, and cannot help feeling a thrill; this place of blaring reed pipes and drums was once the camp of Han generals.
Over ten thousand li of snow a cold light broods; the frontier dawn shines upon the fluttering banners.
Beacon fires on the battlefield blot out the frontier moon; to the south the Bohai Sea, to the north the clouded hills, stand guard about the city of Jimen.
In youth I did not, like Ban Chao, throw down my brush to take up arms; yet for merit and renown I would follow Zhong Jun and beg a cord to bind the foe.
Background
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In the Tang dynasty the Fanyang Circuit, centered on Youzhou southwest of present-day Beijing, commanded sixteen prefectures and was a key garrison of the northeastern frontier. Its principal object of defense was the Khitan. In 714 (the second year of the Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang), Xue Ne, chief administrator of Bingzhou, was granted the title Tong Ziwei Huangmen Sanpin and led troops against the Khitan; in 734 (the twenty-second year of Kaiyuan), Zhang Shougui, the military governor of Youzhou, beheaded the Khitan ruler Qulie together with Kedugan. This poem was written some time within those twenty years, when Zu Yong was very likely serving in Fanyang.