Li Shangyin
Series: 3 Tang poems
Cicada
pure of heart and therefore hungry, all night long you have sung in vain.
oh, this final broken indrawn breath, among the green indifferent trees!.
yes, I have gone like a piece of driftwood, I have let my garden fill with weeds.
I bless you for your true advice, to live as pure a life as yours.
Note
1. This is based on two sentences: The ancients mistakenly thought that cicadas were exposed by eating wind and drinking dew. It is said here that it is in vain to live in high places and find it difficult to eat, although there is hate.
2, a tree sentence: It means that although cicadas moan, the tree is pale and moist, as if it were cruel to each other. Actually, metaphor is neglected by people.
3. Bo Huan: The official is humble.
4, the stem is still extensive: here is the meaning of self-injury.
5. The weeds are flat: they are barren to the point of no shin.
Translation
You can't be full if you live on high branches;
although you whine with hatred, you are wasting your energy.
after the Five Watches, the sound of sparse was almost cut off.
The tree is still green without any sympathy.
My official position is humble and drifting like a peach stalk.
My home has long been deserted and weeds have buried my feet and shins.
I have to guard myself against your calls.
I also keep my family clean like you.
appreciation
? This poem uses chanting cicadas as a metaphor for its own nobleness. The first half is excited by the smell of cicadas, focusing on chanting cicadas; It eats wind and drinks dew, and it is lofty and elegant, but it is hard to get full when it screams at the top of its lungs. In the second half of the song, I expressed my feelings directly. I was a thin official in another country, and my branches drifted. My hometown was deserted, so I went to Hu Bugui. Therefore, the smell of cicadas is a warning to themselves, and they are in the same boat. The theme of the whole poem is deeply expounded at different levels: "it is difficult to get enough", "futility", "desire to break", "ruthlessness", deep resentment and heavy hatred, which can be seen at a glance. It's really a masterpiece of "chanting things"