The sunset is infinitely beautiful, but it is almost dusk
The birth of the famous sentence
Xiang Wan1 felt unwell2 and drove to Guyuan3. The sunset is infinitely beautiful, but it’s almost dusk.
——Li Shangyin·Deng Leyouyuan
Completely understand the famous sentences
1. Xiangwan: evening. 2. Feeling unwell: Feeling uncomfortable inside. 3. Guyuan: This refers to Leyouyuan.
In the evening, I felt depressed, so I drove a carriage to Leyouyuan. Looking at the beautiful scenery under the setting sun, it is a pity that it is almost dusk.
Little common sense about the poet's background
Li Shangyin (813-858 AD), also known as Yishan, Yuxisheng, and Fan Nansheng. Li Shangyin was born in an era of political turmoil and frequent social unrest in the late Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty was no longer prosperous and was like a collapsed paradise, full of decadence and corruption. The poet lived in it and had the ambition to reverse the trend, but his talents were not recognized. Therefore, His poems are full of nostalgia and sentimentality for the past prosperity. He was promoted to Jinshi in the second year of Kaicheng in the late Tang Dynasty, and the following year he went to Jingyuan to serve under Wang Maoyuan, the military governor. Wang Maoyuan loved his talent and betrothed his daughter to Li Shangyin. Since Li Shangyin was governed by the Niu Party when he ascended the throne, he was classified as a Niu Party, but his father-in-law was a member of the Li Party, and by marrying Wang Maoyuan's daughter, he offended the Niu Party who had promoted him to the throne. Throughout his life, he could not get rid of the entanglement of the Niu-Li party struggle, and his political career was repeatedly disrupted because of this, which caused heavy burdens and pain in his life. The twists and turns of his official career and the suffering of his mood. After his ambition was difficult to achieve and his wife passed away due to illness, the poet became even more depressed and his poetic style tended to be obscure and difficult to understand. He also passed away seven years after his wife passed away at the age of 46. The last poetry superstar of the Tang Dynasty died.
Generally speaking, Yishan's poems are full of hazy and obscure images, which are related to his delicate and sensitive personality, the unsatisfactory officialdom and various blows in life, coupled with his deep affection His unrepentant and persistent personality make him have a heavy load on life and love, which creates the mood of life in the poem that never returns. As far as the form of poetry creation is concerned, Li Shangyin inherited the rigorous metrical poetry writing since the poet Du Fu. His works are meticulous in meaning, rich in diction, profound in meaning, and changeable in style. The biggest feature is his good use of allusions. He is the most famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. A poet who is good at using allusions. The most popular of Yishan's poems is the series of "Untitled" poems. The diction is not only beautiful and elegant, but the language is also quite concise. He uses clever metaphors to convey his deep and profound meaning, which has touched the hearts of countless readers throughout the history.
The story of famous lines
Li Shangyin's "Deng Le Yu Yuan" has long been famous, especially "The sunset is infinitely beautiful, but it is almost dusk" and has traveled through the ages. The creation of this poem is also very different from Yishan's poetry style. It lacks many allusions and the usual deep and secluded images. The text is simple and unpretentious, but the connotation gives people infinite reverie, which is difficult to explain and difficult to understand at a glance. Poetry critics have always had various interpretations of this poem, all based on personal experience and interpretation. To interpret it purely in a literal sense, we know that at sunset, because of his depression, Li Shangyin drove alone to Leyouyuan. Seeing the yellow and clear setting sun shining down, I couldn't help but be touched by the scene and express my indescribable feelings. Yishan's poems are often full of esoteric songs about the end of the century. His nostalgia and inseparable attachment to the prosperous age of the Tang Dynasty constitute the deep sadness and sense of twilight in his poems. The same is true for this poem "Deng Le Yu Yuan", which not only expresses the national destiny The worries about the end of the world are also mixed with the resentment towards one’s own failure, which are intertwined and have everlasting meanings.