Beyond the Frontier: The Old Pass

Lines 1–2 · The old pass in the present

秦時 and 漢時 stand in parallel. Read their shared view as moonlight and a pass stretching back across both dynasties. The names give the frontier a history longer than any individual journey. 萬里 enlarges the march, and 未還 gives the absence an unfinished duration. The English “have still not returned” preserves that waiting.

Lines 3–4 · A commander imagined in the present

但使 opens a condition, “if only.” 飛將 is the title “Flying General,” commonly associated with Li Guang. The interpretation of 龍城 complicates an exact identification, so the translation keeps “Dragon City” as part of the wording. 教 in 不教 means to let something happen. The English treats 胡馬 as the opposing cavalry and 度 as crossing the Yin Mountains. The imagined ability to stop that crossing gives the poem a response to the first half’s long absence.

This seven-character jueju rhymes 關, 還, and 山. The second couplet is conditional: if such a commander were present, the crossing would be prevented. The counterfactual exposes what the first pair lacks. Modern pinyin is supplied; historical tone classes are not invented.

Wang Changling's frontier is a place where return remains unfinished over a great span of time. The second quatrain instead catches the immediate residue of a battle. Compare Spring View, where war's distance is measured through the need for family news.