望岳
唐 · 杜甫
岱宗夫如何？齐鲁青未了。
造化钟神秀，阴阳割昏晓。
荡胸生层云，决眦入归鸟。
会当凌绝顶，一览众山小。
Gazing at Mount Tai
Du Fu
O peak of peaks, how high it stands!
One boundless green o'erspreads two States.
A marvel done by Nature's hands,
O'er light and shade it dominates.
Clouds rise therefrom and lave my breast;
My eyes are strained to see birds fleet.
Try to ascend the mountain's crest:
It dwarfs all peaks under our feet.
(Translated by Xu Yuanchong)
Despite the word "gazing" in the title, there aren't any verbs in the poem that are remotely close to this one. Instead, Du Fu depicts (描绘) what he sees from a range of angles (角度) and distances of Mount Tai – from as far as two states away, to standing at the foot of the mountain. At the end of the poem, Du dreams of climbing to the peak of the mountain to see it from the very top, which is later interpreted (解释) as a metaphor (暗喻) for Du's aspiration (抱负) to achieve big in his career as a government official.
Gazing at Mount Tai is one of Du's earlier poems, written when he was still an ambitious young man who had high hopes for the future. This poses a sharp contrast to the kind of poems that Du is most famous for – those written in his later years that express the suffering of the people during the warring periods, and the disappointment he felt as the Tang dynasty was on its way out.
