Sleep in Fengqiao at night.
Tang Zhangji
Original text:
Crows fell on the moon, crowed coldly, slept on maple trees, and slept in fishing lanes by the river.
In the lonely Hanshan Temple outside Suzhou, the bell that rang in the middle of the night reached the passenger ship.
Translation:
The moon has set, crows are still crowing, twilight is hazy, frost. The maple trees by the river and the fishing fire on the boat make it difficult for a person to sleep. In the lonely and quiet Hanshan Temple outside Gusu, the bell that rang in the middle of the night reached the passenger ship I was riding. ...
Appreciate:
One autumn night, people were boating on the Maple Bridge outside Suzhou. The beautiful scenery of autumn night in Jiangnan water town attracted this traveler with travel worries, which made him appreciate a poetic beauty with meaningful feelings and wrote this poem with clear artistic conception.
The title is "Sleeping at Night", in fact, it only describes the sight and feeling at midnight. The first sentence of the poem describes three closely related scenes at midnight: the setting of the moon, crows and frost all over the sky. The first quarter moon rose early and sank in the middle of the night, leaving only a gray light and shadow in the whole sky. The tree perches probably because of the change of light and shade before and after the setting of the moon, and after being awakened, it makes several crows. The moon sets in the middle of the night, and the frost is black. In the dark and quiet environment, people's feeling of cold at night becomes particularly acute. The description of "frost all over the sky" does not conform to the reality of the natural landscape (frost is on the ground but not in the sky), but it completely conforms to the poet's feelings: the chill that attacks the bones and muscles in the middle of the night and the boats that the poet berthed from all directions at night make him feel that the boundless night sky outside him is filled with frost. The whole sentence, written by the setting moon, written by crows and written by frost all over the sky, clearly reflects a continuous process of time and feeling. And all this is harmoniously unified in the cold and cheerless atmosphere of autumn night in the water town and the lonely feeling of travelers. From here we can see the poet's meticulous thinking.
The second sentence of this poem continues to describe the characteristic scene of "a night-mooring near maple bridge" and the feelings of travelers. In the dim night, the trees by the river can only see a vague outline. Perhaps the reason why they are called "Jiangfeng" is a guess caused by the name Qiao Feng, or the image of "Jiangfeng" is chosen to give readers a hint of autumn. "There is a maple on Zhanjiang River, which hurts spring thoughts" and "There is no sorrow on the green maple". These poems of predecessors can explain the emotional content precipitated by the word "Jiang Feng" and its association. Through the misty river, you can see several "fishing fires" dotted around, which are particularly eye-catching and charming because of the hazy and misty background around. "River Wind" and "Fishing Fire", one is quiet and one is moving, one is dark and the other is on the river. The combination of scenery is quite intentional. When I wrote this article, I pointed out the passengers moored at Qiao Feng Bridge. "Sleeping in sorrow" refers to a traveler lying on a boat with sadness. The word "right" in "opposite" contains the meaning of "partner", but it is not as exposed as the word "partner". There are indeed lonely travelers here, who are haunted by lingering light worries when fishing on frosty nights, but at the same time they imply a fresh feeling for the beautiful scenery of the journey. From the seemingly objective word "right", it seems that we can feel a silent blend and fit between the passengers inside the ship and the scenery outside the ship.
The scenery in front of the poem is very dense, and six scenes are written in fourteen words, but the pictures behind it are particularly sparse. The two poems only wrote one thing: sleeping in the night clock of the mountain temple. This is because the midnight bell of Hanshan Temple is the most vivid, profound and poetic impression the poet got in a night-mooring near maple bridge. Moonsetting, Frosty Night, Fishing by the River, Lonely Boat and other scenes. It shows the characteristics of night parking near Fengqiao in all aspects, but it is not enough to convey its charm. In the dark, people's hearing rises to the first place in the feeling of external things. And the silent night bell gives people a particularly strong impression. In this way, the "Midnight Bell" not only sets off the quietness of the night, but also reveals the depth and clarity of the night. The poet's unspeakable feelings when lying listening to the bell are beyond words.