Said by: Seven Poems of Joining the Army (IV) is one of the seven old battle songs of Wang Changling, a great frontier poet in Tang Dynasty.
Original text:
Seven Songs of Joining the Army (4)
Tang Dynasty: Wang Changling
There is a dark snow-capped mountain in Qinghai, with long white clouds and a lonely city looking at Yumenguan.
Yellow sand wears golden armor in hundreds of battles, but the loulan is not returned.
Translation:
Qinghai Lake is covered with dark clouds and continuous snow-capped mountains. Yumen, the ancient city of frontier fortress, is a grand pass, thousands of miles away, facing each other from afar.
The soldiers on the border have been through many battles, their armor is worn out and their ambitions are immortal. They will never return to their hometown before defeating the invading enemy.
Extended data:
Appreciate:
The first two sentences mentioned three place names. "Snow Mountain" refers to Qilian Mountain which stretches for thousands of miles on the south side of Hexi Corridor. Qinghai and Yumenguan are both specific place names.
Three locations, spanning thousands of miles, show a vast picture: clouds floating from Qinghai diffuse over Qilian Mountain, making the Millennium snow less dazzling; At the end of the snow-capped mountains, you can see an isolated city.
Further west, you will see Yumen Pass. These two sentences give the whole poem a very broad perspective, and a picture scroll spanning thousands of miles from east to west is presented to readers. As frontier poems, these two sentences strengthen the sense of "heroism" in the poems.
Under such a regional background, what will be the life of the soldiers stationed in the northwest frontier? At that time, in the Tang Dynasty, in the northwest border, there were two powerful enemies, one was Tubo and the other was Turkic. Tubo is in Qinghai and Turkic is outside Yumenguan.
Our task in Hexi is to cut off the traffic between Tubo and Turkic, guard against the two powerful enemies in the west and north, and protect the Hexi Corridor. Therefore, these two poems are not only descriptions of scenery, but also realistic descriptions of the military situation at that time.
The description of the scenery and the description of the military situation are integrated into one, permeated with complex feelings: the vastness and bitterness of the frontier fortress and the hardships of life in the frontier fortress, but at the same time, the frontier fortress soldiers are full of pride and shoulder the responsibility of defending the country.
These are all integrated into the open and boundless scenery. The third and fourth sentences, from the distant view to the close view, naturally express your feelings directly. "Yellow sand wears golden armor in hundreds of battles", just seven words, effectively summarizes the cruelty of border war.
The word "yellow sand" highlights the characteristics of the northwest battlefield. The word "hundreds of battles" spoke highly of the frequency of wars, the toughness of the enemy and the hardships of fighting. "Wearing Golden Armor" has implied other imaginable factors besides fighting.
Such as heroic sacrifice, horse death and other big or small gains and losses. However, even if the armor is worn out, the soldiers' ambitions are getting stronger and stronger. "Don't break the Loulan, don't give it back", which strongly shows the lofty aspirations of the soldiers who have fought many battles.
The last sentence swept away the misery of the previous words. All the haze has disappeared, magnificent. This sentence has also become a famous sentence sung through the ages. Generally speaking, this poem is not long, but it is quite rhythmic.
The first sentence and the second sentence focus on describing an incomparably broad realm, which contains incomparably rich military and emotional contents. In the third sentence, there is an obvious turning point, and the perspective is suddenly specific and emotional.
The fourth sentence, strong feelings come out loudly and forcefully and hit the floor. The style of the whole poem is magnificent and powerful. Although there is also sadness, it is not dominant. There is no doubt that the war is hard, which is vividly described in the sentence "Yellow Sand".
But a strong sense of responsibility and pride enables soldiers to undertake the war with an open mind, so the whole sentence gives people an optimistic, dignified and powerful feeling. The last sentence is a firmer oath after deeply understanding the hardships and persistence of the war.
We often say that "the weather in the prosperous Tang Dynasty" is typical in this poem: even in the hard war, it is full of optimism, firmness and lofty aspirations. Wang Changling's quatrains often have this masculine temperament, which is also one of his most prominent advantages.