Li Bai (701–762), also known as Li Po, was a Chinese poet living during the Tang Dynasty.
苏台[1]览古
旧苑荒台杨柳新，
菱歌[2]清唱[3]不胜春。
只今惟有西江月，
曾照吴王宫里人[4]。
公元742年，李白游姑苏台时作此诗。昔日的雕梁画栋，昔日的舞榭歌台，如今都已经荒废。莎翁的十四行诗中有一句最脍炙人口：“荒芜的歌场，曾是鸟儿啁啾的地方”，与此诗可谓异曲同工，极为传神地传达繁华尽逝后的萧瑟与荒凉。见证过这里繁花似锦的，如今只剩一轮明月，依旧照着断壁残垣。此诗既是作者对时过境迁、世事难料的感慨，也是对历史的喟叹。
注释：
[1]苏台：即姑苏台，其旧址在今江苏省苏州市西南姑苏山上。
[2]菱歌：东南水乡老百姓采菱时唱的民歌。
[3]清唱：形容歌声婉转清亮。
[4]吴王宫里人：指吴王夫差宫廷里的嫔妃。
The Ruin of the Gusu Palace[1]
Deserted garden,crumbling terrace,willows green,
Sweet notes of Lotus Song cannot revive old spring.
All are gone but the moon o’er West River that’s seen
The ladies fair who won the favor of the king.
注释：
[1]The Gusu Palace in present-day Suzhou is where the king of Wu with his beautiful Xi Shi held perpetual revelries till the king of Yue annihilated him in the fifth century B.C.
In 742 AD, Li Bai wrote this poem when he visited Gusu Terrace. The carved beams and painted buildings, the dancing and singing platforms of the past are now deserted. One of the most popular lines in Shakespeare’s sonnets is: “The deserted singing field, where birds once chirped”, which is similar to this poem, vividly conveying the bleakness and desolation after the prosperity has passed. What once witnessed the blooming flowers here is now only a bright moon, still shining on the broken walls. This poem is not only the author’s feeling about the passage of time and the unpredictable world, but also a sigh for history.
