Sunlight shines on Incense Burner Peak, tinting the rising mist with purple; from afar, the waterfall looks like a river suspended before the mountain. The rushing water plunges straight down from an immense height, almost making one believe that the Milky Way has fallen from the highest heavens.

香炉: Incense Burner Peak on Mount Lu, rather than an incense-burning vessel. 紫烟: purple haze formed as sunlight illuminates mountain clouds and mist. 挂前川: the waterfall hangs before the mountain like a river suspended in the air.

三千尺: three thousand chi, an emphatic expression of the waterfall's height, not an exact measurement. 银河: the River of Heaven, or Milky Way, used here as an imaginative metaphor. 九天: the highest reaches of the sky.

Li Bai wrote two poems under this title. This page includes the seven-character quatrain, usually listed as the second, and does not mistake it for the complete pair.

Introduction: This quatrain centers on viewing a waterfall from afar, moving from the misty glow around the mountain peak to the plunging torrent, then heightening its grandeur through the imagined Milky Way. The whole poem unfolds a single scene in continuous stages, combining observation with deliberate exaggeration.

“挂” (hang) first presents the ever-flowing waterfall as a complete strip of white silk in the distance, true to how it appears from afar. The next line, “飞流直下” (flying waters plunge straight down), abruptly restores its speed, allowing the still outline and moving force to complement each other.

The Milky Way at the end does not introduce a separate night sky; it is a bold imaginative association prompted by the water before the poet. Moving from “遥看” (“gazing from afar”) to “疑是” (“wondering whether it is”), imagination expands the real landscape, while a clear progression of observation remains within the poem’s expansive spirit.