Tianmu Mountain Ascended in a Dream
- Poetry of Li Bai (Li Po)

海客谈瀛洲，烟涛微茫信难求，

越人语天姥，云霞明灭或可睹。

天姥连天向天横，势拔五岳掩赤城。

天台四万八千丈，对此欲倒东南倾。

我欲因之梦吴越，一夜飞度镜湖月。

湖月照我影，送我至剡溪。

谢公宿处今尚在，渌水荡漾清猿啼。

脚著谢公屐，身登青云梯。

半壁见海日，空中闻天鸡。

千岩万转路不定，迷花倚石忽已暝。

熊咆龙吟殷岩泉，栗深林兮惊层巅。

云青青兮欲雨，水澹澹兮生烟。

列缺霹雳，丘峦崩摧。

洞天石扉，訇然中开。

青冥浩荡不见底，日月照耀金银台。

霓为衣兮风为马，云之君兮纷纷而来下。

虎鼓瑟兮鸾回车，仙之人兮列如麻。

忽魂悸以魄动，恍惊起而长嗟。

惟觉时之枕席，失向来之烟霞。

世间行乐亦如此，古来万事东流水。

别君去兮何时还？且放白鹿青崖间。须行即骑访名山。

安能摧眉折腰事权贵，使我不得开心颜！

A seafaring visitor will talk about Japan,

Which waters and mists conceal beyond approach;

But Yueh people talk about Heavenly Mother Mountain,

Still seen through its varying deeps of cloud.

In a straight line to heaven, its summit enters heaven,

Tops the five Holy Peaks, and casts a shadow through China

With the hundred-mile length of the Heavenly Terrace Range,

Which, just at this point, begins turning southeast.

...My heart and my dreams are in Wu and Yueh

And they cross Mirror Lake all night in the moon.

And the moon lights my shadow

And me to Yan River --

With the hermitage of Xie still there

And the monkeys calling clearly over ripples of green water.

I wear his pegged boots

Up a ladder of blue cloud,

Sunny ocean half-way,

Holy cock-crow in space,

Myriad peaks and more valleys and nowhere a road.

Flowers lure me, rocks ease me. Day suddenly ends.

Bears, dragons, tempestuous on mountain and river,

Startle the forest and make the heights tremble.

Clouds darken with darkness of rain,

Streams pale with pallor of mist.

The Gods of Thunder and Lightning

Shatter the whole range.

The stone gate breaks asunder

Venting in the pit of heaven,

An impenetrable shadow.

...But now the sun and moon illumine a gold and silver terrace,

And, clad in rainbow garments, riding on the wind,

Come the queens of all the clouds, descending one by one,

With tigers for their lute-players and phoenixes for dancers.

Row upon row, like fields of hemp, range the fairy figures.

I move, my soul goes flying,

I wake with a long sigh,

My pillow and my matting

Are the lost clouds I was in.

...And this is the way it always is with human joy:

Ten thousand things run for ever like water toward the east.

And so I take my leave of you, not knowing for how long.

...But let me, on my green slope, raise a white deer

And ride to you, great mountain, when I have need of you.

Oh, how can I gravely bow and scrape to men of high rank and men of high office

Who never will suffer being shown an honest-hearted face!