Kumiya city also.
An old man selling charcoal cuts wood and burns charcoal in the mountains in the south all year round.
His face was covered with dust, which was the color of smoke burning, his temples were gray, and his ten fingers were burnt black.
What is the money for selling charcoal for? Buy clothes, buy food in your mouth.
Pity that he is wearing thin clothes, but he is worried that charcoal can't be sold, hoping it will be colder.
At night, it snowed a foot thick outside the city. Early in the morning, the old man drove a charcoal wheel to the market.
Cows are tired and people are hungry, but the sun has risen very high. They are resting in the mud outside the south gate of the market.
Who is that proud man riding on two horses? It was the eunuchs in the palace and eunuchs who did it.
The eunuch, with documents in his hand and the emperor's orders in his mouth, shouted at the petrified palace.
A load of charcoal, more than a thousand Jin, will be cherished by the envoys in the palace.
Half a horse's red yarn is a silk, which is filled with charcoal to the cow's head.
To annotate ...
Miyagi: Shopping at the Palace.
Cut wages: chopping wood. Nanshan: Zhong Nanshan.
Camp: Camp.
Pianpian: here refers to the triumphant appearance.
Yellow messenger: refers to eunuchs. White shirt: refers to the vagrant instructed by eunuch.
Take it: Take it. Trouble: imperial edict.
Palace envoy: the envoy in the palace refers to the eunuch.
Aya: A thin patterned silk fabric.
Straight: same as "value" and price.
Comment and analysis
"Despicability is the passport of the contemptible", which may be called the portrayal of the times when the court envoys in the middle Tang Dynasty had no lower limit. The old man who worked hard to chop wood and burn charcoal met the eunuch who came to buy it at the market. As always, eunuchs are unreasonable and arrogant. Not only did he rob a car full of charcoal, but also the old man who was in trouble drove his car to the palace. In the end, I only gave him "half a red yarn and a silk" that could neither satisfy hunger nor keep out the cold. The poet speaks his mind without making a final comment like other poems, but he exposes the essence of the palace city in the middle Tang Dynasty. Compared with excellent allegorical poems such as Shang Yang's White-haired Man and Xinfeng Broken-arm Weng, this poem shows the power of typical subjective discussion in objective description. The word "wish" in "The poor man wears simple clothes, worries about charcoal, and wishes the weather is cold" vividly describes the psychology of the old man who is almost abnormal because of poverty, which is particularly novel and profound.