Kudzu grows
——The Book of Songs·Tang Feng
Kudzu grows in Mengchu, and spreads in the wild.
I wish you the best. Who is alone with!
Kudzu grows with thorns, and vines spread over the field.
I wish you the best. Who rests alone!
The corner pillow is charming and the brocade quilt is rotten.
I wish you the best. Who and Dudan!
Summer days, winter nights.
After a hundred years of age, return to his home!
Winter nights, summer days.
After a hundred years old, return to his room!
Translation
Kudzu grows to cover the thorns, and vines spread over the fields.
My lover is buried here, who will accompany me in this lonely place?
Kudzu grows over the jujube trees, and vines grow over the graves.
My lover is buried here, who will accompany my lonely sleepy eyes?
The corner pillows are brilliant, and the brocade quilt is vivid.
My lover is buried here, who will accompany me in the lonely day?
The days in summer are cool and long, and the nights in winter are long.
Only a hundred years later, we can live together here!
The nights are long in winter and the days are cool and long in summer.
Only a hundred years later, we can live together here!
Background This poem is considered by later generations to be the 'ancestor of mourning poetry'. The poem starts from the kudzu vine, or it may be the place of the grave, which touches the emotions. The two are separated and alone, feeling sad. The poem writes about the loneliness of the dead without company, precisely to describe the loneliness of the living, so that they can see the love and unity before birth, and even the wailing of the same hole after death. The poem repeatedly describes the unbearable days of being alone, all in order to express the original coexistence and harmonious beauty. "Gesheng" can be regarded as the origin of Chinese mourning poems. The song of undying love can travel through time and space and become the dreams and expectations of people in every era.
Green Clothes
——The Book of Songs·Beifeng
Green clothes, green clothes and yellow lining.
My heart is full of worries, just protect yourself!
Green clothes, green clothes and yellow clothes.
My heart is full of worries, and I want to defend my death!
It is green and silky, and is governed by women.
I miss the ancients so that they may not die!
The weather is rusty and windy.
I miss the ancients, and they really won my heart!
Translation
Green clothes, green clothes, green face and yellow lining.
My heart is sad, my heart is sad, when will it stop!
Green clothes, green clothes, green tops and yellow bottoms.
My heart is sad, my heart is sad, when will I forget it!
Green silk thread, green silk thread, you sew it yourself.
I miss my deceased good wife, which makes me less likely to make mistakes.
Fine kudzu cloth, coarse kudzu cloth, put on the skirt of your clothes in the cold wind.
I miss my deceased good wife, who really cared about my heart.
Background This is a poem in memory of his deceased wife. Thinking about people after seeing things is the most common psychological phenomenon in mourning and nostalgia. When a person has just emerged from deep grief, seeing the clothes and utensils of the deceased or things made by the deceased will arouse the excitement that was just suppressed and fall into grief again.
This poem has a great influence in the history of literature. Jin Panyue's "Mourning Poem" is very famous, but its expression technique was actually influenced by "Green Clothes".
For example, in the first poem, "There is no image on the screen, but there are traces of calligraphy; the fragrance has not stopped, it is still hanging on the wall", "When do you forget to sleep and be happy, the sorrow accumulates day by day", etc., which are really the first and second pieces of "Green Clothes" Chapter meaning; another example is Yuan Zhen's "Revelation of Sorrows", which is also a mourning