望庐山瀑布望廬山瀑布
rì zhào日照xiāng lú香炉shēng生zǐ紫yān烟，
yáo遥kān看pù bù瀑布guà挂qián前chuān川。
fēi飞liú流zhí直xià下sān三qiān千chě尺，
yí疑shì是Yín hé银河là落jiǔ tiān九天。
The poet & the story
Li Bai visited Mount Lu in Jiangxi several times; this quatrain comes from his travels there around 725. Nobody in Chinese poetry exaggerates like Li Bai — “three thousand feet” and a waterfall mistaken for the Milky Way are his trademarks, and the poem made the Lushan falls a pilgrimage site.
Interpretation
Sunlight on Incense-Burner Peak raises violet mist; from afar the waterfall hangs like a bolt of silk before the river. It plunges three thousand feet straight down — could the Milky Way be falling from the ninth heaven? The poem teaches Chinese hyperbole at its most joyful: the impossible image that feels truer than measurement.