题西林壁 Mt. Lu’s Every Guise

题西林壁

原作: 苏轼

英文版: 闵晓红(2023)

横看成林侧成峰，

远近高低各不同。

不识庐山真面目，

只缘身在此山中。

Mt. Lu’s Every Guise

—Inscribed on a wall of Xilin Temple

Chinese original: Su Shi

English Version: Julia Min

Let the eye go: near is high, as far is low.

Sidewise, spines of ridges; outward peaks.

How can you see Mt. Lu’s every guise,

When you yourself dwell in her very eye?

Appreciation:

In 1084, Su Shi was promoted. On his way to the new post, he detoured to Mount Lu to visit his old friend, the monk Can Liao. Business can wait. Mountains and monks cannot.

The first lines seem simple. From one angle, a ridge. From another, a peak. Near, it towers. Far, it sinks. The mountain cannot decide what it wants to be—the geological equivalent of someone who poses differently for every photo.

Then the second couplet drops its bomb: You cannot see the mountain's true face because you are inside it. The one place you cannot see a mountain clearly is from the mountain itself. Like reading a book while trapped inside chapter three. The closer you are, the less you see.

Centuries later, William Blake wrote:

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand,And a Heaven in a Wild Flower.”

Both poets understand: truth shifts with every pair of eyes. The infinite hides in the small; the mountain hides in plain sight.

There is a funnier version. In John Godfrey Saxe's "The Blind Men and the Elephant," six blind scholars each touch one part and declare they know the whole. Su Shi's poem is the same insight, delivered without slapstick—but the laugh lands just the same. We are all that blind man. We are all standing somewhere.

The final couplet's popularity suggests we suspect our view is incomplete. We just need a poet to say it so simply that we smile and agree. After all, the only thing funnier than not seeing the mountain is thinking you do—while standing on it.

Reference:

1. Blooming Alone in Winter by Gordon Osing, Julia Min, and Huang Haipeng， published by the People's Publication House Henan Province in 1990 (《寒心未肯随春态》戈登.奥赛茵，闵晓红，黄海鹏) (“Inscribed on Xilin Temple”-- Sideways you see a spine of ridges, outward peaks./Let eye go: near is high as far as near is low./How can you hope to know Lu Shan’s true face?/Your physical self is dwelling in her eye.”)

2. picture from baidu-TA说