Disclaimer: This post was originally written in Chinese and translated into English by GPT-5.2.
On November 14, 2016, I toured Yueyang Junshan and Yueyang Tower together with Professor Yan Ik Sang of Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea (Seoul). At the time heavy fog arose, shaking the city yet not dispersing; as far as the eye could see, there was only thick mist. Near noon rain began, further helping to fill the vast void; the sun was low and dim, lingering without clearing. Professor Yan arrived happily; upon seeing it he could neither laugh nor cry. Having no alternative, he sighed in disappointment; we agreed to lean on the railing, facing Dongting Lake and holding our feelings for five minutes. Later he asked for a piece of writing, saying you could write a “New Record of Yueyang Tower” or “A New Record of Yueyang Tower”; a regulated verse of seven characters or an ancient fu would do. To please you, it would also be possible to complete it as prose, and so on. Now the vernacular poem has been completed, yet Professor Yan has already flown back to his country; though I crane my neck and stand on tiptoe, I do not see him. I add this note as a remembrance.
Wind and moon without bounds—yesterday’s talk; Today at Yueyang, one walks alone①.
Dongting’s lake waters cannot be seen, Junshan’s floating isle—till the eyes are pierced②.
Whence do vast dreams arise③? To gaze afar at boundless blue—without cause.
Not as good as long conversing with you; In vain I regret: brush in hand, the heart is hard to convey.
Postscript: ①To the utmost, it speaks of the greatness of the fog. ②On Junshan there is a stone stele engraved with the line “From atop Yueyang Tower facing Junshan.” ③Chairman Mao’s “Seven-Character Regulated Verse • Reply to a Friend”: “I would, because of this, dream of the vast expanse.”
Climbing Yueyang with Xiao Xiang Yan Ik Sang
Dongting’s autumn colors, fog in the Han River region,
Drizzling rain; a small boat—no one afloat.
Poets of successive dynasties sink into reverie,
Yueyang asks me: from where have I come?
2016.12.03
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