lè乐yóu游yuán原

Leyou Plateau was in the southeast of the Tang capital Chang'an. It was the highest place in the city, and people often climbed it for the view. In this poem Li Shangyin feels low one evening and goes up to watch the sunset. The year it was written is not clear. The poem also appears under the title "Climbing Leyou Plateau". Li Shangyin never got far in his career, and sadness often shows in his poems.

乐游原在唐代长安城的东南部，是城里最高的地方，人们常到这里登高游玩。这首诗写李商隐傍晚心情不好，登上乐游原看夕阳。具体写于哪一年不清楚。这首诗也有题作《登乐游原》的。李商隐一生不得志，常在诗里流露伤感。

Li Shangyin (about 813 to about 858) was a famous poet of the late Tang, often named together with Du Mu. All his life he was caught between two quarrelling groups of officials at court. Neither side trusted him, so he never rose high, and he was often unhappy. His poems are full of delicate feeling and are often hard to pin down.

李商隐（约813—约858），字义山，号玉谿生，晚唐著名诗人，和杜牧并称“小李杜”。他一生卷入朝廷里两派官员的争斗，两边都不讨好，官一直做得不大，心情常常郁闷。他的诗感情细腻，常常含蓄难懂。

The poet feels gloomy and wants some fresh air, so he drives up to the high plateau. Looking out, he sees the setting sun painting the world gold and red. It is beautiful. But at once he thinks: this lovely sight will soon be swallowed by the night. Joy and regret rise in him together. These lines are often taken to mean that beautiful things tend not to last. Some readers also hear the poet sighing over his own passing years, or over the fading power of the Tang dynasty. Another reading takes zhǐ shì to mean "precisely because": the sun is so lovely just because dusk is near. Whichever way you read them, these lines have stayed famous for over a thousand years.

诗人心里烦闷，想出去散散心，就驾车登上高高的乐游原。一眼望去，夕阳把天地染得金红，美极了。可是他马上想到：这么美的景色，马上就要被黑夜吞没了。美好和可惜一起涌上心头。这两句常被理解为：美好的东西往往很短暂，也有人从中读出诗人对自己年华老去、对唐朝国运衰落的感叹。还有一种理解认为“只是”是“正是”的意思：正因为接近黄昏，夕阳才这么美。不同的读法，都让这两句成了千古名句。