It means: sigh that our life is only a short moment, but we can't help but envy the endless Yangtze River.
"Red Cliff Fu" is a fu created by Su Shi, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty. Select original text:
Fang Qi broke Jingzhou and went down to Jiangling, downstream to the east. He was thousands of miles long, wearing a flag, drinking wine and singing poems across the river, and became a hero in the world. Now, where is he?
In fact, my son and I are fishing on the river, and we are friends with fish, shrimp and elk. We love each other. It's a drop in the ocean to send a mayfly into the earth. Mourn a moment in my life and admire the infinity of the Yangtze River. Fly with the flying fairy, hold the bright moon, and grow up. I couldn't understand it at the moment, but I heard about it in Hengtai.
Translation:
At the beginning, Jingzhou was captured, Jiangling was captured, and it went down the Yangtze River. His warships are connected end to end, stretching for thousands of miles, with flags covering the sky. Facing the great river, he poured wine and recited poems with a spear. He used to be a contemporary hero, but where is he now?
Besides, you and I are fishing and chopping wood in a small continent in the middle of the river, with fish and shrimp as partners and elk as friends. We are driving this boat on the river, raising cups and toasting each other, just like a mayfly in the vast world, as small as a millet in the sea.
Alas, sighing that our life is only a short moment, we can't help but envy the endless Yangtze River. I want to travel around the world hand in hand with the gods and embrace the bright moon forever. Knowing that these can't be realized after all, I have to turn my regret into a flute and entrust it to the sad autumn wind.
Extended data
Creative background:
Fu on the Red Wall was written during Su Shi's relegation to Huangzhou (now Huanggang, Hubei) due to Wutai Poetry Case. In the fifth year of Yuanfeng, Su Shi visited Chibi twice in July 16 and 10/5, and wrote two poems about Chibi. Later generations called the first poem "Red Cliff Fu" and the second poem "Back Red Cliff Fu".
Main idea of the article:
This poem describes what the author and his friends saw and felt when they went boating in Chibi on a moonlit night. Taking the author's subjective feelings as a clue, he expressed a nihilistic thought and a negative outlook on life in the form of a question and answer between the subject and the object, which is one aspect of Su Shi's thought revealed by the guest. At the same time, it reflects the author's ease of boating on a moonlit night, to the sadness of recalling the past and hurting the present, and then to the philosophy of spiritual liberation.
Baidu encyclopedia-chibi fu