It was stormy on November 4th
(Southern Song Dynasty) Lu You
Zhan ① Wogu Village does not mourn for itself ② Still thinking of defending the country ③ Luntai .
At the end of the night, I lie down listening to the wind and rain, and the iron horse and the glacier fall into my dreams.
Poetry Notes
① Lying stiffly: refers to lying in bed due to illness.
②Don’t grieve for yourself: don’t grieve for yourself.
③Garrison station: guard the border. Luntai, a place name in the Western Regions during the Han Dynasty, is now Luntai County in Xinjiang. This generally refers to the border defense stronghold in the north.
④ Night: The night is coming to an end.
⑤Iron Horse Glacier: Wearing iron armor and holding weapons, he rides an armored horse on the battlefield and kills the enemy bravely.
⑥ Isolated village: a remote village. When he wrote this poem, Lu You was sixty-eight years old and living idle in his hometown of Shanyin (now Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province), but he still looked forward to serving his country.
Translation
I lay quietly in the lonely and desolate countryside. I didn't feel sad, but I still wanted to guard the border for the country.
Late at night, I lay in bed and heard the sound of wind and rain, and vaguely dreamed that I was riding an armored war horse across the frozen river to fight in the northern battlefield.
Writing background
This poem was written in the third year of Shaoxi reign of Emperor Guangzong of the Song Dynasty (AD 1192), when the poet was 68 years old and living idle in his hometown of Shanyin (now Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province). There are two original poems, and the one selected here is the second of them.
Appreciation
This is a passionate poem written by Lu You, who is nearly seventy years old, on a cold and stormy night, supporting his aging body and lying on a cold quilt. patriotic poems.
The first two sentences of the poem directly express the poet's own feelings. "Lying stiffly" expresses the old condition of the poet, and "solitary village" expresses the state of isolation from the world. One is "frozen" and the other is "lonely". It is extremely desolate. Why don't you "sorrow yourself"? Because the poet's patriotic enthusiasm has reached the level of selflessness, he no longer cares about his personal health and living environment, but "thinks about guarding the Luntai for the country", and still has the spirit of "the old man is in trouble and aims for a thousand miles". However, he doesn't know that reality is cruel and does not depend on people's wishes. All he can do is "think about it". These two sentences focus on the word "thinking", which shows the poet's unswerving ambition to serve the country and his concern for the country and the people!
The last two sentences are a deepening of the first two sentences. They focus on the word "dream" and are written vividly and touchingly. The poet was concerned about national affairs and formed a dream of military war. He reproduced his ambition to "garrison Luntai" in the form of a dream. "Coming into a dream" reflects the sadness of political reality: the poet wanted to serve the country but was rejected and could not kill the enemy. The feeling of the enemy can only be reflected in a dream. But the poet "does not feel sorry for himself" at all, and his desire to serve the country and kill the enemy is even stronger. I think about it every day and dream about it at night. Therefore, the dream of "Iron Horse Glacier" more fully demonstrates the poet's strong patriotic thoughts and feelings.
Compared with the poet's other old age poems, this poem is unique in its writing style. Its main feature is to express feelings through dreams. There were many excellent poems written about dreams before Lu You. Li Bai's poem "Dream Wandering in the Heavenly Mother's Farewell" depicts bizarre and colorful dreams; Du Fu's poem "Dream of Li Bai, Two Poems" imitates the dream that permeates the poet and Li Bai's physical and spiritual unity, and their heart-to-heart friendship; Su Shi The poem "Jiangchengzi" ("Ten years of life and death") describes the poet's dream of mourning his deceased wife and expressing his grief. Most of the dreams in Lu You's poems are patriotic dreams. There are nearly a hundred poems about dreams in Lu You's "Jiannan Poetry Draft". In the Qing Dynasty, Zhao Yi commented on Lu You's poems in Volume 6 of "Oubei Poetry Talk": "It's like a dream poem. According to the complete collection, there are ninety-nine poems. How can there be such a dream in life! There must be a poem without a title, so I entrusted it to you. "To Meng Er." This comment believes that not all of Lu You's poems and dreams are realistic dreams, and some are dreams and thoughts. This is quite insightful. In fact, some of Lu You's poems about dreams are portraits of dreams, and more of them are about dreams and feelings. Of course, it is not ruled out that they are both. This song "The Wind and Rain on November 4th" seems to be regarded as a work that is both a portrait of a dream and a dream-revelation.