This poem comes from Li Shen's "Compassion for Peasants" II in the Tang Dynasty. The specific original text is as follows:
After cutting the grain at noon, sweat dripped down the soil.
Who knows that every meal in the plate is bitter.
Whole poem translation:
Farmers are weeding in the midday sun, and sweat drips from them on the land where seedlings grow.
Who knows that every meal on the plate is bought by farmers with hard work?
Appreciate:
This poem is about the hardships of labor, and the fruits of labor are hard to come by. The first and second sentences, "When weeding at noon, sweat drips down the soil", depict farmers still working in the fields under the scorching sun at noon. These two poems choose a specific scene and vividly describe the hardships of labor. With these two specific descriptions, the sighs and warnings in the third and fourth sentences, "Who knows that every grain is hard", are freed from the empty and abstract preaching and become flesh-and-blood and far-reaching proverbs.
This poem doesn't start with specific people and things. It reflects not the personal experience, but the life and destiny of the whole peasant. The poet chose typical details of life and well-known facts, and profoundly exposed the unreasonable social system. Tell people that they should save food and not waste it.
Creative background:
According to the records of Fan Gang's "Yunxi Friendship" and "Old Tang Lu Shu Wei Chuan" in the Tang Dynasty, it can be inferred that this poem was written by Shen Li in the fifteenth year of Zhenyuan in Tang Dezong (799). This period is a chaotic era of Xuanwu. Judging from the background, farmers are also extremely hard because of the war. The author wrote this poem under such circumstances.
About the author:
Li Shen (772-846), Han nationality, was born in Qiao County, Bozhou in the Tang Dynasty. . At the age of 27, he was admitted to middle school and became a teaching assistant. He became close friends with Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi. The most brilliant part of his life is poetry. He is a participant in the new Yuefu movement, which has great influence in the history of literature. He wrote 20 new poems about Yuefu, which have been lost. There are two poems entitled "Compassion for Farmers": "At noon on the day of weeding, sweat drips down the soil. Who knows that every grain of Chinese food is hard. " As is known to all women and children, his poems have been handed down through the ages in four volumes.