The source is Wei's Miscellaneous Poems II.
Did you see May bloom at the window when Jun came? "Cold plum" is a very common and unobtrusive little thing in life. When a wanderer meets an old friend, he wants nothing but cold plum, because she is a symbol of hometown and a concentrated sustenance of homesickness. This poem is unpretentious and affectionate.
Note: transoms, windows with hollow patterns.
Appreciating a person from hometown, a wanderer who has lived in a foreign country for a long time, naturally there are many questions to ask. These two poems are just questions: Did you meet May bloom in front of my window when you came? Carved windows. Only plum blossoms are asked in the poem, which shows the homesickness. Poetry sees the big from the small, combines originality with simplicity and is full of poetry.
Whole poem
Miscellaneous Poems (2)
[Tang] Wang Wei,
You have just come from our hometown, and we must understand the world.
Did the plum blossom when you came to the engraved window of my house?
Distinguish and appreciate
This is a homesick poem. Missing one's hometown and family is one of the common themes in China's ancient poems, which often shows the feelings and sustenance of wandering wanderers when they suffer hardships and experience unbearable loneliness on the road of life. Ordinary homesick poems often directly describe the tossing and turning of the lyric hero, sighing and lamenting the irresistible sadness itself, or expressing vague but strong feelings through the scenery, so that the scenery can coexist. However, in this poem, the author takes a different approach and adopts an ordinary and ordinary question-and-answer method, which is still so casual, as if it were just a few pleasantries with visitors from hometown, relaxed and simple: Ah, you are from hometown, so you should know something about your hometown. Even better, the author doesn't seem to be eager to listen to the trivial but possibly provocative narratives of his fellow villagers, but unconsciously raises seemingly pedantic questions on the change of a topic. Windows refer to carved panes. Did you see wintersweet blooming in front of the window the day you came? The author asked casually. On the one hand, it embodies the poet's delicate and keen feeling of projecting the imagined hometown plum blossom, which has certain symbolic significance; On the other hand, in terms of expression, this short space is endowed with profound and meaningful expressive force, which makes these ten words contain thousands of words, and everything is self-evident.
In addition, the first two sentences of this poem describe today and this time, and the last two sentences describe the space thousands of miles away and the time a few days ago. In just four sentences, the structure of interweaving time and space, reality and imagination can't help but admire the author's superb skill in mastering five-character quatrains.
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Huang Shucan's "Three Hundred Poems of Tang Poetry" notes: "It's all said by the previous poem (according to the miscellaneous poem living in the river), which is really touching and incredible. With the word' window', there is infinite affection. "
Wang Wen-Kun commented on Tang poetry: "Talking about the capital is an inquiring tone, and the homesickness of the wanderer is obvious."
Zhao Diancheng's comment on Wang Youcheng Collection: "Tao Yuanming's poem says,' You come from the mountain and your eyes shine in the morning and evening. I live under the south window and there are several chrysanthemums in my life. In Wang's poem, he said,' A Taoist from Beishan came to ask me about Donggang. Raise your hand and point to the roof. The clouds are so long today. It is the same axis as the travel stamp. If they are both sensational, they are also self-employed and have no false decoration. However, Yuan Ming and Fu Jie have written two works. With more affixes below, their interest is not far away. Youcheng is just a short sentence, but it is more melodious. I can't repeat it if I want to. "