Climbing the Pagoda of Mercy with Gao Shi and Xue Ju
與高適薛據登慈恩寺浮圖 · Three Hundred Tang Poems
Climbing the Pagoda of Mercy with Gao Shi and Xue Ju
The tower's force bursts forth, rising alone and tall to pierce the heavenly palaces.
Ascending, one leaves the world behind; the stone steps coil through empty space.
It looms abruptly, pressing down upon the land of gods, its rugged grandeur as though wrought by ghostly hands.
Its four corners obstruct the white sun; its seven stories brush against the azure vault of heaven.
Looking down, one points at the soaring birds; bending low, one hears the startled wind.
The linked mountains surge like waves and torrents, rushing onward as though hastening eastward at dawn.
Green locust trees flank the speeding roads; how exquisite and finely wrought the palaces and halls!
Autumn hues arrive from the west, filling the Guanzhong plain with a vast, somber green.
Upon the northern plain of the Five Tombs, through endless ages, an unbroken blur of blue-green haze.
The pure truth can be fully grasped; I have long held fast to the supreme cause.
I vow to hang up my cap and depart—the path of awakening yields boundless sustenance.
與高適薛據登慈恩寺浮圖
塔勢如湧出，孤高聳天宮。
登臨出世界，磴道盤虛空。
突兀壓神州，崢嶸如鬼工。
四角礙白日，七層摩蒼穹。
下窺指高鳥，俯聽聞驚風。
連山若波濤，奔湊如朝東。
青槐夾馳道，宮館何玲瓏。
秋色從西來，蒼然滿關中。
五陵北原上，萬古青濛濛。
淨理了可悟，勝因夙所宗。
誓將挂冠去，覺道資無窮。