Drunken makeup words
Author: Wang Yan
I walk on this side, just looking for flowers and willows.
Walking on that side, don’t be afraid of the golden cup of wine.
Translation
Walking here and there, feasting and traveling all day long in search of flowers and willows. Walking here and there, singing and dancing all the time and drinking gold cups of wine.
Notes
The side: this side.
Appreciation
Wang Yan was the subjugated monarch of Shu during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. He did not care about government affairs and lived a debauched life. This drunken poem is a reflection of his life. The tone of the poem was created by Wang Yan himself. Volume 1 of "Hua Cao Cui Bian" quotes "Bei Meng Suo Yan" as saying: "The Lord of Shu, Yan, tried to wrap himself in a small scarf, the tip of which was as sharp as a cone. The court prostitutes wore many Taoist robes, hairpins and lotus crowns, applied rouge to their faces, and called 'Zui' "Zhuang", a derivative of "Zui Zhuang Ci"
The poem expresses the joy of enjoying a feast.
"I walk here and there, just looking for flowers and willows." The first few sentences of this poem say that I walk here and there, feasting all day long in search of flowers and willows.
"Walking that way, walking at the same time, don't hate the golden cup of wine." The last few sentences mean that if you walk that way and this way, you will always sing and dance and drink the golden cup of wine.
In order to write about the fun of banquets thoroughly and to the extreme, the author uses the interlacing technique often used in folk songs to form a looping form, creating an environment full of flowers and willows that are eye-catching. It shows the scene of lingering around for fun and indulging in lewd pleasures.
"He (i.e.) walks this way, walks that way", this is a slightly changing overlapping complex. "Walking over there, walking on the other side" not only overlaps with itself, but also forms different and intertwined characteristics with the former. In addition, they are slightly spaced, and the whole word is composed of small sentences without fragments, flowing straight down. Therefore, the words are not only coherent, but also particularly round and flowing, and the syllables are very harmonious. "Just looking for flowers and willows" and "Don't hate the golden cup of wine" are separated by repeated sentences, resulting in a kind of delay. Their appearance before and after expresses the mutual causal relationship between enjoying the scenery and drinking. The words "just" and "not disgusted" express an extreme pursuit of people's desire to linger on beautiful scenery and indulge in pleasure. This decadent emotion of being immersed in drunkenness and dreams is very strong.