The last sentence is like the morning clouds without finding a place: How long will it take to come back like a spring dream
Original text:
"Flowers Are Not Flowers" [Tang Dynasty] Bai Juyi
Flowers are not flowers, and fog is not fog. Come at midnight and leave at dawn. How long does it take for you to feel like a spring dream? Going like a cloud in the morning, nowhere to be found.
It is an ancient miscellaneous poem written by Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. This poem expresses the emotion that life is like a dream, like fog or lightning, and expresses a kind of remembrance and regret for the beautiful people and things that have existed in life but have disappeared.
The whole poem is composed of a series of metaphors, the description is obscure but true, and there is rhythmic order and intricate beauty in the hazyness. It is an excellent work of love poetry. Later generations once composed it into a piece of music, which was widely circulated.
Notes:
⑴Huafeihua: the name of the Ci Pai, composed by Bai Juyi himself.
⑵Lairu: When it comes.
⑶How much time: There is not much time.
⑷It seems as if it has gone: After leaving, it is like the clouds drifting away in the morning, nowhere to be found.
⑸ Chao (zhāo) said: This is borrowed from the allusion of King Xiang of Chu dreaming of the goddess of Wushan Mountain. Song Yu's "Gaotang Fu" preface: I am in the sun of Wushan Mountain, blocked by high hills, with morning clouds in the morning and rain in the evening, under the balcony in the morning and evening.
Translation:
Like a flower but not a flower, like a mist but not a fog. Arrive at midnight and leave after dawn. How much time can you have when you come like an erotic dream? When I left, it seemed as if the morning clouds had dispersed and there was no place to look for.
Bai Juyi's poems are not only famous for their simple language, but also for their artistic conception. This "flower is not a flower" has a rather "hazy" flavor, which is indeed a special case in Bai's poems. The poem takes the first three characters as its title, which is almost "untitled". The first two sentences should be read as "flower - not flower, fog - not fog", which gives people a sense of uncertainty at first.
"Not a flower" and "not a fog" are both negative, but they contain a self-evident premise: like a flower, like a fog. So it can be said that these are two clever metaphors. Su Dongpo seemed to get a hint of inspiration from this, and wrote the famous sentence "It looks like a flower, but it still looks like a non-flower, and no one would like to teach it" ("Water Dragon Yin·Like a flower, but also like a non-flower").
Su’s poem is about poplars and willow catkins, while Bai’s poem is about something that is not clear. However, from the description of "midnight comes and dawn goes", it can be seen that the metaphor here is based on flowers and fog, which is a metaphor for the short-term nature of the things being chanted, and it is difficult to last long. Just reading "Comes at midnight and leaves at dawn" makes readers suspect that it is a dream. But from the words "come like a spring dream" in the next sentence, it can be seen that this is not the case.
"Dream" turns out to be a comparison. Here, the words "come" and "go" play a role in connecting the previous and the following musically, thus giving rise to two fresh metaphors. "Come in the middle of the night" is the dream of spring. Although the spring dream is beautiful, it is short-lived, which leads to the question: "How long will it be like to come?" There is no place to look for in the morning clouds.”
Poems are composed of a series of metaphors, which are called metaphors. They are closely intertwined, like clouds and water flowing, naturally written. Repeatedly highlight an unexplained metaphor with vivid images.
There are many examples of people who make good use of metaphors in poetry, such as "There is a fight in the south and the north, and the morning cow is not yoked" in "Nineteen Ancient Poems: Bright Moon at Night", He Zhu's "Qingyu Case· "Lingbo is no more than Hengtang Road" "Yichuan tobacco, the city is full of wind and rain, plums are yellow and rainy". But these metaphors are just a component of the poem. It is very rare that the whole poem is composed of metaphors.
Furthermore, the former example uses Nanji, Beidou, morning glory and other stars as a metaphor, and the metaphor is "what's the use of a false name"; the latter example uses tobacco, wind catkins, plum rain and other scenes as a metaphor, as a metaphor. "I'd like to ask you how much do you know?" The metaphor (the thing being compared) is clear. In this poem, we only see the metaphor (the object used as a metaphor) but not the metaphor, which is like a thought-provoking mystery.
As a result, the artistic conception of the poem is cast in a "hazy" color. Even so, the poetic meaning of this poem is not completely obscure and elusive. It was compiled by the author into the "Sentimental" section, and there are works with similar sentiments in the same section. The first is "The Tomb of the True Mother", which reads: "The frost destroyed the peaches and plums, and the wind broke the lotus. The true mother was still young when she died.
The fat skin of the catkins is not strong, and the beauties in the world can hardly linger. It is difficult to linger, It's easy to sell flowers in the north of the country, and snow in the south of the Yangtze River." The other poem is "Jian Jian Yin", which writes: "The heavy frost in February will kill the peach blossoms, and those who want to marry next year will die this year." "Most good things are not strong, and colorful clouds are easy to scatter." Glass is broken."
Both the two poems are works of mourning. The metaphors in the last lines of their poems, especially the "Saibei flowers" in "easy to break" and the "caiyun" in "easy to scatter", are in line with the last two lines of the poem. The metaphors are almost exactly the same, even the music and emotions are very similar. They all also express a kind of remembrance and regret for the beautiful people and things that existed in life but have disappeared.
The poem "Flowers Are Not Flowers" is compiled closely after "Jian Jian Yin", which also shows the poet's information about the purpose of this poem. This poem uses the form of alternating three-character sentences and seven-character sentences (this is a flexible use of the three-three-seven-sentence pattern of folk songs at that time). It has both rhythmic order and intricate beauty, and is very similar to the later Xiaoling.
So later generations actually adopted this poem's syntax as the tone of the poem, and used "Hua Fei Hua" as the name of the tone. A major change in the content of ci poetry compared to 57-character poems is that it is more inclined to express people's inner mood. In this regard, the poem is also similar to the lyrics. This phenomenon of "poems resembling small words" appeared in the writings of Bai Juyi, a poet who was early in writing poetry in the Tang Dynasty. It is quite natural.
The pun and hazy beauty are the biggest features of this little poem. Fog, spring dreams, morning clouds, these images are hazy and misty, and the connections between the images are deliberately omitted, showing a greater leap. The words are ethereal and refined, making people chew on them, showing that the poet is extraordinary. artistic skills.
Bai Juyi (772～846), a poet of the Tang Dynasty. The courtesy name is Lotte and the name is Xiangshan Jushi. Born in Xinzheng, Henan, he was originally from Taiyuan (now part of Shanxi) and later moved to Xiagui (now northeast of Weinan, Shaanxi). Zhenyuan Jinshi, awarded the title of Secretary Provincial Secretary.
During the Yuanhe period, he served as Dr. Zuo Yiyi and Zuo Zanshan. Later, he offended the powerful and was demoted to Jiangzhou Sima because he requested that the murderer of the assassination of Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng be severely punished. In the early years of Changqing, he was appointed as the governor of Hangzhou, and in the early years of Baoli, he was appointed as the governor of Suzhou. Later, he became the minister of the Ministry of punishment.
In literature, he advocated "articles should be written according to the time, and songs and poems should be written according to the situation". He was an advocate of the New Yuefu Movement. The language of his poems is popular, and he is known as the "Poetry Demon" and the "Poetry King". Together with Yuan Zhen, he is also called "Yuan Bai", and with Liu Yuxi, he is also called "Liu Bai". There is "Bai's Changqing Collection" handed down from generation to generation.