Bai Juyi [Tang Dynasty]
This night, the pillow was ice, which surprised me. I saw the light snow outside the window.
It's late at night until it snows heavily, because you can hear the sound of bamboo branches breaking from time to time.
translate
At night, my pillow froze. I was surprised. I saw the window lit up by the snow.
I know it snows heavily at night, because I can hear the sound of snow pressing bamboo branches from time to time.
Distinguish and appreciate
Snow is unique among many natural scenery. With her natural beauty and magical ability to decorate the mountain, she won the praise of countless poets in past dynasties. Bai Juyi's "Night Snow" has neither color description nor posture description in the voluminous snow-chanting chapter. At first glance, it is almost unremarkable, but if you taste it carefully, you will find it dignified and simple, fresh and elegant.
This poem is novel and unique, with a good idea. There are not many poems about night snow, because snow is silent and tasteless and can only be distinguished from color, shape and posture. In the dark night, people's vision completely loses its function, and naturally they can't capture the image of snow. But it is from this special situation that Bai Juyi, full of innovative spirit, jumped out of the mold of positive description that people usually use and set it off with the side, thus vividly reappearing a night snow.
"Cold in the pillow" begins with people's feelings. Through "cold", it not only points out the existence of snow, but also implies that it is very heavy, because when it just falls, the cold in the air is absorbed by water vapor and condensed into snowflakes, and the temperature will not plummet. Only when it is heavy will it aggravate the cold in the air. It's already cold here, which means it has been snowing for a long time. Not only Cold is about snow, but In a daze is also about snow. The reason why people didn't notice it at first and suddenly woke up when the cold current struck was because the snow fell silently, showing another feature of snow besides "cold". This sentence is very tight, feeling "cold at the pillow" means that people have been lying down at night, which means "snow at night" See the window again, and further write the night snow from the visual point of view. Looking at the bright window at night shows that it is snowing heavily and deeply, and the strong reflection of snow brings light to the dark night. All the above are set off by the side, and every sentence is written, but the snow is everywhere at night.
"I know it snows heavily at night, but I can hear the sound of bamboo folding." This is still a profile description, only written from the perspective of hearing. The sound of snow pressing on bamboo branches indicates that the snow is increasing. The poet deliberately chose the detail of "folding bamboo" to express the word "heavy", which has a different feeling. The sound of "bamboo folding" sounded in the middle of the night, showing the silence of winter night, and more importantly, the poet's sleepless night. This is not only for the "cold pillow", but also conveys the loneliness of the poet when he lives in Jiangzhou. Because the poet reveals his unique feelings with true feelings, this poem "Snow at Night" is unique, poetic, implicit and has enduring charm.
The whole poem has a reasonable layout and is promoted layer by layer. Described from the three levels of touch, vision and hearing, it is full of twists and turns. The ending sentence is silent and vocal, which makes the picture of the whole poem quiet and dynamic, meaningful and fresh, and truly presents a quiet and silvery world, and the poet's loneliness of staying up all night is also revealed. This little poem fully embodies the poet's easy-to-understand language characteristics. The whole poem is simple and elegant, without a trace of ostentation and extravagance, beautifully carved, reflecting the consistent style of Bai Juyi's poetry.