Moon over Mountain Pass
李白
明月出天山
苍茫云海间
长风几万里
吹度玉门关
míng yuè chū tiān shān
cāng máng yún hǎi jiān
cháng fēng jǐ wàn lǐ
chuī dù yù mén guān
明月出天山，苍茫云海间。长风几万里，吹度玉门关。
Frontier moon—wind carries longing across the pass.
《关山月》：边月与征人——山关把相思拉成地理跨度。乐府惯以月作信使。可与《出塞》并读：同一轮边月，不同的冷。今日：远距关系里，共享的「月」往往是时区与消息。
Moon over the Mountain Pass: frontier moon and conscripts—passes stretch longing into geography. Yuefu often makes the moon a courier. Pair with Beyond the Border: same moon, different cold.
距离有时用风来量——它先到，人后到。
Distance can be measured in wind—it arrives before you do.
Read first, then practice — fill in lines and write a character.
Fill in the blanks
Practice calligraphy
This poem belongs to a place on the map—open the landscape to read both together.
This poem is linked from a city essay—open the place to read the name and the verse together.
Dunhuang
Blazing beacon — oasis where the Silk Road left walls of painted prayer
Jiayuguan
Fine valley pass — Ming Great Wall’s western gate where agrarian China staged its last named threshold
Loulan
Kroraina remembered — vanished Silk Road oasis whose name outlived its map
Shanhaiguan
Mountain–sea pass — eastern gate of the Wall, Ming–Qing hinge where “inside” met the northeast
Turpan
Turfan oasis — grapes and manuscripts under the Flaming Mountains on the Silk Road’s western ledger
Wuwei
Martial awe on the Hexi — Liangzhou, Tang frontier capital of music and frontier verse in Chinese memory