No. 5 · Tang poem · five-character quatrain第 5 首 · 唐诗 · 五言绝句
wáng王zhī之huàn涣Wang Zhihuan · Tang唐
Climbing Stork Tower
bái白rì日yī依shān山jìn尽
huáng黄hé河rù入hǎi海liú流
yù欲qióng穷qiān千lǐ里mù目
gèng更shàng上yì一céng层lóu楼
Underlined words have notes: tap one. The Pinyin button below shows or hides all pinyin. 一 and 不 are marked with the tone you actually say.字下有虚线的，点开有注释。下方的“拼音”按钮可以显示或隐藏全部拼音。“一”“不”标的是实际读出来的变调。
Stork Tower stood in Puzhou, today's Yongji in Shanxi. It had three floors. From it you could see the Zhongtiao Mountains, and the Yellow River ran below. Storks often rested on it, which gave it its name. Many Tang poets climbed it and wrote poems, and this one is the most famous. The year it was written is not known. One old source names a poet called Zhu Bin as the author, but today it is usually given to Wang Zhihuan.
鹳雀楼在蒲州（今山西永济），楼高三层，前面能看到中条山，下面就是黄河，常有鹳雀在楼上停歇，所以叫这个名字。唐代很多诗人登楼写诗，这一首最有名。写作年份不详。也有一种说法认为这首诗的作者是朱斌，不过现在通常认为是王之涣写的。
Wang Zhihuan (688–742) came from Jinyang, today's Taiyuan in Shanxi, and lived in the high Tang period. He was bold and free in spirit. His poems were sung by many people in his own time, but most were lost. Only six survive today. Two of them, this one and "Song of Liangzhou", are very famous.
王之涣（688—742），并州晋阳（今山西太原）人，盛唐诗人。他性格豪放，诗在当时就被人传唱，可惜大多没有留下来，现在只有六首诗传世，其中《登鹳雀楼》和《凉州词》（黄河远上白云间）都非常有名。
The first two lines give the huge view from the tower. To the west, the sun sinks slowly against the mountains. Below, the Yellow River rushes toward a faraway sea. One line is about mountains, one about water, and together they bring a vast world before our eyes. In fact you cannot see the sea from the tower. "Flowing into the sea" is the distance the poet pictures in his mind. The last two lines turn from scenery to an idea: to see farther, climb one more floor. It sounds simple, but it says something everyone understands: to see more of the world, keep going higher. That is why people often use these lines to encourage themselves.
前两句写站在楼上看到的大景：西边，太阳贴着山慢慢落下；脚下，黄河一路奔向远方的大海。一句写山，一句写水，一下子就把很远很大的天地放到眼前。其实站在楼上看不到大海，“入海流”是诗人心里想到的远方。后两句由看风景变成讲道理：想看得更远，就得再往高处走一层。这句话很简单，却说出了一个人人都懂的道理：想要有更大的眼界，就要不断向上。所以这两句常被人用来鼓励自己。