Thank you for your enjoying this poem! I love both, too. Yeah, the images are very wonderful.
The surging Chu River/Yangtze River seems to split the Mountain Tianmen in half when running from the west to east in Dangtu county. Then it turns north and arrives in Nanjing, pouring into East China sea by Shanghai in the end. (It is also very interesting for myself to learn something new when I read this poem again.) The mountains on both sides gradually unfold themselves as if to greet the ship by which the young poet Li Bai began his journey.
(Oh, maybe I should add one point: Tianmen is the pinyin/phonics of 天门. 天 means sky or heaven; 门 means gate. So in the second version, the translator calls it as Mountain Heaven's Gate.)
Thank you for the added explanation. I enjoy how these poems are rooted in the authors' history and the landscape around them. I know that translations are difficult and one loses some meaning in the process. These poems were probably meant to be read aloud, so there's the added complexity of sound and pronunciation.
You are right. These ancient Chinese poems are apt for reading aloud. Most of quatrains were written in rhyming and antithesis. I always feel it is absolutely a good way for foreigners to learn Chinese by starting with them.
True, it is interesting to enjoy how the poems are rooted in the authors's history, thus we can transcend time and space gladly.
Thank you for your enjoying this poem! I love both, too. Yeah, the images are very wonderful.
The surging Chu River/Yangtze River seems to split the Mountain Tianmen in half when running from the west to east in Dangtu county. Then it turns north and arrives in Nanjing, pouring into East China sea by Shanghai in the end. (It is also very interesting for myself to learn something new when I read this poem again.) The mountains on both sides gradually unfold themselves as if to greet the ship by which the young poet Li Bai began his journey.
(Oh, maybe I should add one point: Tianmen is the pinyin/phonics of 天门. 天 means sky or heaven; 门 means gate. So in the second version, the translator calls it as Mountain Heaven's Gate.)
Thank you for the added explanation. I enjoy how these poems are rooted in the authors' history and the landscape around them. I know that translations are difficult and one loses some meaning in the process. These poems were probably meant to be read aloud, so there's the added complexity of sound and pronunciation.
You are right. These ancient Chinese poems are apt for reading aloud. Most of quatrains were written in rhyming and antithesis. I always feel it is absolutely a good way for foreigners to learn Chinese by starting with them.
True, it is interesting to enjoy how the poems are rooted in the authors's history, thus we can transcend time and space gladly.