Author: Li Bai era: Tang Dynasty
White hair three thousands of feet, sorrow like a beard.
I don't know where to get autumn frost in the mirror.
Translation:
White hair grows to three thousands of feet, just because I have been sad for too long. I looked at the bright mirror and didn't know where I got so much frost.
Appreciate:
This poem expresses the poet's difficulty in displaying his talents with romantic exaggeration.
The first sentence "three thousands of feet with white hair" is a wonderful exaggeration, which seems unreasonable. A person can't have seven feet tall and three thousand feet long hair. I didn't understand until I read the next sentence, "Fate is like a long sorrow", because sorrow is like this. "Fate", because; "Long", so long. White hair is born of sadness and grows because of sadness. This 3000-foot white hair is a symbol of inner sadness. The tangible white hair in the poem is replaced by the intangible sadness, so these three thousands of feet's white hairs are naturally understood as artistic exaggeration.
The last two sentences "I don't know where to get the autumn frost in the mirror" mean: I look in the clear bronze mirror and see my rustling white hair, and I don't know how my hair became so white. By asking myself questions, I further strengthened the characterization of the word "sorrow" and expressed the poet's difficult dilemma. "Autumn frost" refers to white hair, which has a sad and haggard emotional color.
This poem was written in the last years of Tianbao in Li Longji, Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty. At that time, the Tang Dynasty was politically corrupt and the poet was deeply worried about the whole situation. At this time, Li Bai was over 50 years old, and his ideal could not be realized, but he was suppressed and excluded. Why not let the poet worry about his white hair and dye his temples with autumn cream?
Qiupu was in the west of Guichi County, Anhui Province, about the twelfth year of Tianbao (AD 753), and Li Bai wandered here. During his stay, he wrote a group of five-character poems in the name of Ode to Autumn Pu, totaling 17. This is the fifteenth of them. The poet wrote his deep sadness with extreme exaggeration.
When Li Bai arrived in Qiupu, he had left Chang 'an for almost ten years. He left in the third year of Tianbao (AD 744). Since then, I have traveled all over the world, and I am at home everywhere, from Yanzhao in the north to Jianghuai in the south; Among them, there are many happy times. It is particularly worth mentioning that Du Fu, another master of realism in China's poetry circles, walked hand in hand with Liang and Song, and discussed poetry with wine, which was very satisfactory. It's a moment's pleasure, and it's a beautiful talk through the ages. But when he was in Qiupu, his mood was not very good, which was reflected in his group of Qiupu songs.
This poem expresses the poet's difficulty in displaying his talents with romantic exaggeration.
When the poet looked in the mirror, he saw a lot of white hair at first sight, but he was shocked. He couldn't help exclaiming: My white hair is three times as long as thousands of feet's, just because I am worried. When writing this poem, Li Bai was in his fifties. Before that, he had repeatedly lamented that white hair was born early, which may not be true, but now it is indeed a gray age. But is this just the aging of the years? We know that sadness and anxiety are also related to white hair. The most famous story is the story of Wu Zixu, because her hair turned white overnight. As for the poet, his white hair is also born of sadness, and it grows because of sadness. The length of three thousands of feet is obviously exaggerated. Its length is so long that we can see how deep the sorrow is. This sentence is a self-answer, the language falls, and the mood turns sad. We seem to see the poet sitting alone in a sad city, sighing heavily and lowering his pale head feebly. "Fate" means because "Ge" means this.
This poem gives people a romantic and style with obvious poetic color. "White hair and three thousands of feet, like a long beard!" If others say that they have ten feet of hair, it is estimated that no one will believe them, while Li Bai's partial belief that he has three thousands of feet white hairs has become a famous sentence throughout the ages. Then why is an objectively impossible phenomenon subjectively recognized and loved by countless readers?
The reason is of course in the second sentence behind. Because the significance of this couplet lies not in the "white hair and three thousands of feet" that expresses the length, but in the "long sorrow" that explains the reason. It turns out that the three thousands of feet white hairs written by Li Bai are just a frame of reference. Why do I have such long white hair? Because I have "the same long sorrow!" The reason is because of meaning, and so is meaning. These two poems turned out to be inverted sentences. Of course, Li Bai is not worried about his basic necessities like ordinary people, nor that he has no official position, because he left the Hanlin bachelor with the emperor and insisted on going to Qiupu to "sing a white-haired song". He is worried that he can't realize the ideal of "saving the world", and he is worried that he can't realize his long-cherished wish-to retire after becoming famous. Seeing that he has long been far away from the political center of the country, national affairs are getting worse every day, and he is completely helpless, and he is helpless about the fate of the country and his personal ambitions.
The last two sentences "I don't know where to get the autumn frost in the mirror" mean: I look in the clear bronze mirror and see my rustling white hair, and I don't know how my hair became so white. By asking myself questions, I further strengthened the characterization of the word "sorrow" and expressed the poet's difficult dilemma. "Autumn frost" refers to white hair, which has a sad and haggard emotional color.
"I wonder where there is autumn frost in the mirror?" When Li Bai looked in the mirror, he suddenly found himself covered with "autumn frost", but he couldn't figure out when and where his hair turned white. This once again shows that Li Bai didn't encounter great changes in his life like Wu Zixu, but was suddenly stimulated mentally. We know that he is an extremely romantic person, but romantic people don't necessarily have no worries, because romantic people often have more pursuits and stronger desires than ordinary people who are content, so they are bound to have greater disappointment. Repeated failures in the pursuit of ideals have left Li Bai in a state of depression for a long time, and his natural pride is constantly getting rid of depression and pursuing himself. This kind of mental repression and anti-repression will certainly have an intangible negative impact on people's psychology and even physiology. In fact, Li Bai is not just lamenting that he is white-haired and old, but has a deeper sorrow, that is, he has pursued his whole life and finally found nothing, but only got "three thousand white hairs"!
Where does the white hair come from? Ever since he wandered out of Shu in his twenties, the poet has been working hard. No matter when he was frustrated, he didn't feel sad and angry, so that he gave birth to his son early! This song "Autumn Frost" is the imprint and proof of my bumpy experience for most of my life. The poet seems to see his own sorrow in the mirror: he has pursued it all his life and has achieved nothing so far. The two interrogative words "I don't know" and "Where is it" in the poem are used together, and the question is raised with a strong sigh, but there is no answer. How can a poet not know that he has experienced personal feelings? He just put the infinite sadness and sadness behind him.
From now on, when you are old, the lofty sentiments of the past will cease to exist. Even if you are romantic and approachable, there will inevitably be sadness at the end of your life. Although Li Bai is helpless in his heart, his way of expressing this helplessness and deep mentality is still free and easy. My white hair is 3000 feet long, more than ordinary people. My hair is all white, but I am unaware of it, even though I am talking about sadness and sorrow!
We read the sigh of "Three thousands of feet with White Hair", and we listened to the question of "I don't know in the mirror", but we still felt that this is an indomitable soul fighting against fate and heaven, and it will still be conquered by the author's indomitable personality who refuses to bow to the outside world and shocked by his tragic life experience!
This poem is regarded as the swan song of writing sorrow in the history of literature. The sadness in my heart is exaggerated to three thousand white hairs; It's hard to understand, but as for Wu Si, it's frosty. However, Mr Li Ding is shocking. He thinks that Li Bai's poems are not exaggerated, but real works. The reason is that the ancients thought that people had 10,000 hairs, which were three feet long. Li Bai's head is white with sorrow, and his long hair is connected with just three thousands of feet, which is an out-and-out documentary technique.