The main point of Li Yu's "Poppy Poppies" is to express the pain of the country's subjugation and the longing for the motherland.
"Poppy When Will the Spring Flowers and Autumn Moon Come" Five Dynasties: Li Yu
When will the Spring Flower and Autumn Moon come? How much do you know about the past? There was an east wind in the small building last night, and the motherland could not bear to look back at the bright moon.
The carved railings and jade inlays should still be there, but the beauty has been changed. How much sorrow can you have? Just like a river of spring water flowing eastward.
Translation:
When will this year end? How many past events do we know! Last night, the spring breeze blew again from the small building. How could I bear the pain of recalling my homeland on this bright moonlit night?
The finely carved railings and jade steps should still be there, but the person I miss is already aging. Ask me how much sadness is in my heart, just like the endless spring water flowing eastward.
Li Yu's longing for his motherland may not be worthy of sympathy. The past events he misses are inseparable from the imperial life of "carved railings and jade walls" and the palace secrets of morning and evening affairs. But this popular masterpiece is indeed unique in art:
"When will the spring flowers and autumn moon come" shows that the poet is a prisoner, and he is afraid that the spring flowers and autumn moon will bring back memories of the past and make him sad. "Spring Flowers and Autumn Moon" attracts many people to be beautiful, but the author earnestly hopes that it will "end" soon; the "east wind" in the small building brings the message of spring, but instead causes the author to lament that "it is unbearable to look back", because they all evoke the author's characters. The touch of right and wrong brings out his sorrow of being imprisoned in a foreign country. It is used to describe the author's state of mind when the leader of Jiangnan, who was surrounded by pearls and greenery and cooked gold and jade, was transformed into a prisoner who sang and cried. And profound. "How much do you know about the past?" Looking back at the past, as a king, many events in the past are vividly remembered... "The east wind blew in the small building last night, and the motherland cannot bear to look back in the moonlight." The small building, which was living quietly, was blown by the spring breeze again. Spring flowers will bloom again. Recalling the dynasty of the Southern Tang Dynasty and the Li family's country, my homeland had long been destroyed. The poet lives in a prison cell, listening to the spring breeze, looking at the bright moon, feeling emotional about the scene, full of melancholy, and unable to sleep at night. The word "again" indicates that this situation has occurred many times, and the mental pain is really unbearable. "Again" points out the temporal changes of "Spring Flowers and Autumn Moon". The poet survived for another year in the Song Dynasty, which intensified the melancholy expressed in the previous two sentences and also evoked the poet's memories of the past events of his motherland.
“The carved railings and jade inlays should still be there, but the beauty has changed.” Although “the motherland cannot bear to look back,” we cannot help but “look back.” These two sentences specifically say "looking back" at the "homeland". The gorgeous palaces in the old capital of Jinling are probably still there, but the beauty of the palace ladies who mourned the country has changed. This implies Empress Li's emotion about the change of surnames in the country and the changes in the colors of mountains and rivers! The word "beauties" here certainly refers to the pink beauties in the palace in the past, but it is also a symbol of all the beautiful things and beautiful lives in the past. In the above six sentences, the poet tried his best to integrate the contrast between beauty and tragedy, past and present, scenery and personnel. Especially through the strong contrast between the eternity of nature and the vicissitudes of personnel, he poured out the sorrow and regret accumulated in his chest in a twists and turns. , condensed into the final eternal song ~ "How much sorrow can you ask? Just like a river of spring water flowing eastward." The poet first used thought-provoking questions to point out the abstract ontology "sorrow", and then used vivid metaphors The body's rushing river "water" answers. Using the spring water of the river to describe the sorrow and hatred is very appropriate. It not only shows the long and profound sorrow and hatred, but also shows the turbulent rolling of the sorrow and hatred, fully reflecting the strength and depth of the rushing emotions.
In the first half of his life, as the king of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Li Yu lived a very luxurious and extravagant life. The themes of his poems were narrow, and they were nothing more than expressing palace life, love affairs between men and women, or parting emotions. After the country was subjugated, his lonely and desolate situation turned his poetry to writing about homesickness and hatred of the country's subjugation, and he achieved great success. "Poppy Poppies" is one of the most famous. On his birthday, July 7, 978 (Chinese Valentine's Day), he and his family sang his new poem "Poppy Poppy", which angered the Song Dynasty Emperor Zhao Guangyi and ordered him to be poisoned. Li Yu died miserably, at the age of only forty-one.