A nice postcard of Beijing Summer Palace ...

Many thanks Xu Wei for this nice postcard of Beijing Summer Palace (颐和园), sent on Oct 16 (or Sept 9 in Lunar Calendar, or The Double Ninth Festival, or Chong Yang Festival "重阳节") ;-)

For information, in December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List and declared the Summer Palace a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.

The postmark was special as it came with Chinese poem, written by Li Shangyin, a Chinese poet of the late Tang Dynasty. The translation of the poem in English :

With twilight shadows in my heart
I have driven up among the Leyou Tombs
To see the sun, for all his glory,
Buried by the coming night.

向晚意不适，驱车登古原。

夕阳无限好，只是近黄昏。

--- 唐李商隐的《乐游原》

【韵译】：

临近傍晚时分，觉得心情不太舒畅；

驾车登上乐游原，心想把烦恼遣散。

看见夕阳无限美好，一片金光灿烂；

只是将近黄昏，美好时光终究短暂。

【评析】：

这是一首登高望远，即景抒情的诗。首二句写驱车登古原的原因：是“向晚意不适”。后二句写登上古原触景生情，精神上得到一种享受和满足。“夕阳无限好，只是近黄昏”二句，素来人们多解为“晚景虽好，可惜不能久留。”今人周汝昌认为：“只是”二句，“正是诗人的一腔热爱生活，执着人间，坚持理想而心光不灭的一种深情苦志。”这种看法，虽有新意，却不合诗人的身世，也不合诗人当时的情绪。