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菩萨蛮
[唐]李白
平林漠漠烟如织，
寒山一带伤心碧。
暝色[1]入高楼，
有人楼上愁。
玉阶空伫立[2]，
宿鸟归飞急。
何处是归程？
长亭[3]更短亭。
[1]暝色：幽暗、昏暗的天色，这里指暮色。
[2]伫立：长久地站立。
[3]长亭：行人休息或者饯别之处。所谓“十里一长亭，五里一短亭”。
Tune: Buddhist Dancers
Li Bai
O’er far-flung wooded plain wreaths of smoke weave a screen,
Cold mountains stretch into a belt of sorrowful green.
The dusk invades the tower high
Where someone sighs a longing sigh.
On marble steps she waits in vain
But to see birds fly back amain.
Where should she gaze to find her dear?
She sees but stations far and near.
As early as the Northern Song Dynasty (960—1127), this poem and the following were con-sidered to be the two earliest literary lyrics written by Li Bai (701—762). This poem describes the sorrow of a young woman who mounts a high tower at dusk, looks far into the wooded plain and the belt-like mountains, but fails to find her husband on his way home.
