Indeed, literally, this poem is really suitable for confession: there are trees on the mountain and trees have branches. I like you in my heart, but you don't know it.
But do you know that this poem is actually a song sung by a boatman to a beautiful man?
This poem is from Yue Yue Ge, which, together with other folk poems of Chu State, became the artistic source of Chu Ci and the earliest translation of China.
Ren Yue Song
What a night tonight, roaming in the river.
What day is today? Together with the prince.
I'm ashamed. I don't deserve my humble opinion.
Confused mood can not only satisfy the prince.
There are trees on the mountain and branches on the tree. My heart likes you. You don't know that.
What a night tonight, wandering by the river.
What day is it today? I'm in the same boat as the prince.
Thanks to the respect of the prince, he didn't abandon me and scold me (because I am a ship).
I'm confused. I can see the prince.
There are trees on the mountain and trees have branches. I like you in my heart, but you don't know it.
Many people think it's love, but "Yue Man Song" is actually a song sung by the boatman of Yue State to the gentlemen of Chu State.
In the Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang's Shuo Yuan recorded that Xi, a gentleman in the legend of Chu, was a handsome man. One day, he was sitting on a China boat engraved with bluebirds and heard a Vietnamese boatman singing folk songs. Due to the language barrier between Chu and Yue, the Hubei army asked the Chu people to translate, and this song Yue Yue Ge was produced.
Mr. e, who knows the meaning, is not angry, but very happy. So I covered the boatman with a quilt and slept with him. From this, an idiom "e-jun embroidered quilt" is derived to express good feelings for same-sex couples.
From this point of view, "Yue Yue Ge" is indeed a chorus of two men, but whether it is gay or not is unknown, and there is no need to delve into it.
In ancient times, men were very particular about friendship. For example, Du Fu "chased" Li Bai and wrote dozens of poems back and forth. There is also "Bo Ya Jue Xian": Zhong Ziqi died of illness, and Bo Ya was heartbroken, thinking that there would never be a bosom friend in this world again, and no one in the world could understand the artistic conception of his performance like Zhong Ziqi. So I broke my favorite piano, broke the strings and stopped playing all my life.
Perhaps the feelings expressed in this poem are so perfect that many people use this poem in love. In fact, China's culture is booming. Among many ancient poems, many poems are more suitable for expressing love than Ren Yue's songs, such as Guan Yu: Guan Yu's dove and On the River. A beautiful and virtuous woman is a good spouse of a gentleman. Jianji: Jianji Grey, Bailu Cream. The so-called Iraqis are on the water side.
But Yue Yue Song is not an expression of love, let alone a secret love.