Full text translation of "Lushan Waterfall" by Xu Ning:
The spring water falling in the air is as straight as a knife blade, and the waterfall roars like thunder straight into the river and never stops. Lushan Waterfall has been like a white horse hanging down from ancient times to the present. This white line completely separates the green mountain peaks, and the boundary is very clear.
Original text of the work:
"Lushan Waterfall"
Tang Dynasty: Xu Ning
The spring falls in the sky thousands of feet straight, and thunder rushes into the river No respite.
Now and in the past, it is as long as Bai Lianfei, and a boundary breaks through the green mountains.
Lushan Waterfall Pinyin interpretation:
xū kōng luò quán qiān rèn zhí, léi bēn rù jiāng bú zàn xī.
jīn gǔ zhǎng rú bái liàn fēi, yī tiáo jiè pò qīng shān sè.
Allusion:
According to "Yunxi Youyi": When Bai Juyi was the governor of Hangzhou during the Changqing period (821-824), Zhang Hu and Xu Ning both accepted tribute and could not be separated. Who should be recommended first? Bai Juyi then set out the test questions "Long Sword Relying on the Heaven" and "The Afterglow Scattered into Qi", and ordered the two to compete in the finals. As a result, Xu ranked first and Zhang ranked second. Hu was dissatisfied and said: "I have better poems! Sentences such as 'The terrain is far away and the mountains are respected, and the river is close to the pass', 'You can see it in the shadow of the trees, and the bells can be heard on both sides'. I am afraid that sentences like Qi Wuqian's The poet's poem "The tower shadow hangs in the Qing Dynasty, the bells and the white clouds" are not necessarily comparable, right? Where is the beauty of the green mountains?" Zhang Hu then sang and returned.
Appreciation of the work:
The first and second sentences of the poem are quite impressive. Void, extremely high, means not knowing where it comes from. Qianren, that is, 8,000 feet. Although it is an estimate, it is connected with "void" and means that the waterfall is high and straight, but it is also described very realistically. The following uses "Thunder Rush" to describe the noisy roar of the waterfall. It not only arouses the auditory experience after the reader has a visual impression, but also writes the dynamics of the waterfall, making the picture of the first sentence active and forming a flying momentum. , making people feel like they are on the scene, with the feeling of splashing water.
The third and fourth sentences place the waterfall in a taller space to show its landscape features. The poet metaphorically said: From a distance, the waterfall flowing down from a high place is like a piece of white silk flying down in the sky. It breaks the green hills, as if drawing a boundary. The poet imagines: The green hills are eternal, the waterfalls are ever-flowing, and the white horse will always fly there, with infinite vitality.
The poem is good, but its shortcomings are irreparable. The main shortcoming lies in the metaphor of "practicing in vain". Although the poet used the word "fly", Bai Lian gives people a dull and stagnant feeling. Using it to describe flying waterfalls always makes people feel rigid, which seems inconsistent with the first two sentences and destroys the vividness of the overall art. sex. It is true that there is a metaphor in "Shui Jing Zhu" of "a hanging waterfall, looking up to the sky, as if it is flying in the night", but it is a long-distance visual impression and cannot take into account the microscopic dynamics of the object. Li Bai's "The Yellow River comes up from the sky like silk", that's it. There is also a line in Xie Tiao's poem "The clear river is as quiet as practicing", which has been highly appreciated in modern and ancient times. However, the word "Lian" in Xie Tiao's poem is mainly used to describe the clearness and tranquility of the river. It is inappropriate to apply it to waterfalls and flowing springs. It can be seen that the metaphor of "Bai Lianfei" in Xu's poem is not only inherited, but also does not belong to the first two sentences, which inevitably contains the slightest flaws of the white jade.
In particular, the great poet Li Bai has a famous line: "The stream is flying down three thousand feet, it is suspected that the Milky Way has fallen from the sky." Li Shi wants to fall from the sky, and the new police is moving. The metaphor of "Galaxy" has the feeling of flying clouds and flowing light. It is used to describe the momentum and scene of waterfalls pouring down from the sky and jumping beads splashing backwards. It can be said to be extremely vivid and vivid, unparalleled. . In this way, the clumsiness of Xu's metaphor becomes even more obvious.
So when I went to Su Dongpo to visit Lushan Mountain and saw two poems by Li and Xu written together in "Lushan Ji", I couldn't help laughing, because the poem said: "The emperor sent the Yinhe River to descend, and in ancient times there were only poems about banishing immortals. . How much do you know about "flying water and splashing foam"? The words "flying water and splashing foam" here are criticizing Xu's poems for not being as appropriate, vivid and new as Li Bai's, so Xu's poems are called "evil poems". .
After Su Shi's comments were published, the comparison of the two poems became a public case in the history of poetry, which aroused people's thinking. This is a great thing for summarizing creative experience.
However, there are certain points in Xu's poetry, so there is no need to call it "evil poetry".
About the author:
Xu Ning was alive around 813 AD and Yuanhe Zhong, Emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty. Unknown name, from Muzhou. A native of Fenshui Baishan (now Baishan Village, Fenshui Town, Tonglu County) in the Tang Dynasty. I am in the same place as Shi Jianwu, chanting every day. When he first visited Chang'an, he did not want to show off his talents and did not pay homage to the dignitaries, so he did not become famous. Before returning to the South, he wrote a poem to bid farewell to his assistant, Han Yu: "I have only met Yuan Bai in my life, and no one in the world values ??commoners. I shed my tears when I want to say goodbye to a noble family, and a white-headed wanderer returns home in vain." He criticized the social phenomenon at that time that only valued fame and did not value true talents and learning. . Bai Juyi was appointed as the governor of Hangzhou. He tasted peonies at Kaiyuan Temple in Hangzhou and saw a peony poem written by Xu Ning. He greatly appreciated it and invited him to drink with him. He returned drunk. Later, he competed with Zhang Hu in poetry, who had a reputation for poetry. Hu was ashamed of himself, but Bai Juyi judged Ning to win the peony poem, which was rewarded by Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen. When he arrived in Chang'an, he was not good at paying visits. He only visited the gate of Han Yu, but he did not become famous. When he was about to return home, he wrote a poem about Han Yu, which included the line "The tears of those who want to say goodbye to the noble family will be gone first, and the white-headed wanderer will return home in vain". During the Tang Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty, he was promoted to Jinshi and was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of Finance.
Xu Ning’s poems are simple and unpretentious, with lofty artistic conception and smooth and natural writing. "Title of Jinyun Ding Lake in Jinyun Prefecture": "The Yellow Emperor's flag never returned, carrying a piece of green stone and Cui Wei in the air. Sometimes the wind swept the waves of Ding Lake, scattering them like raindrops from the blue sky." It was regarded as the last song, but no one dared to write the title later.
Xu Ning's calligraphy was famous at that time. According to the "Xuanhe Calligraphy Book": "Xu Ning has a method for writing, and his writing style has its own Confucian style, which is not based on the rules of calligraphy." The calligraphy treasures of his two poems "Yellow Crane Tower" and "Jing Wu Dreams" are Collected by the Song Dynasty court.
Comments from famous experts:
Su Shi said: Li Bai’s poems are good and his own poems are wonderful, but he does not advocate Xu Ning’s poems.
Because the Song Dynasty praised Li Bai's Wanglu Mountain Waterfall, he was forced to write the "Poetry on the Xu Ning Waterfall" because of the emperor's face.