Original text
Wang Changling
Cicadas chirp in the empty mulberry forest, and the road is Xiaoguan Road in August.
Going out of the plug and back in again, there are yellow reeds everywhere.
We have always been friends and guests, but we all grow old in the battlefield.
Don’t imitate the knight-errant and boast about Ziliu.
Rhyme translation
Cicadas are chirping in the bare mulberry forest, and the Xiaoguan Road in August is refreshing and high in autumn.
After leaving the fortress and then entering the fortress, the climate becomes colder, and there are yellow reeds inside and outside the pass.
Since ancient times, heroes from Hebei and Shanxi have grown old with dust and yellow sand.
Don’t imitate the knights who rely on their bravery and boast about their horses.
Appreciation
Among the poets of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Wang Changling's frontier fortress poems are also unique and highly praised. "Song on the Fortress", written by the poet when he was roaming the northwest frontier in his early years, is a very distinctive work.
This Yuefu song is about non-war. The poem begins with conquering the frontier and never returning, but warns young people not to boast about force, expressing feelings other than war.
The poet first used "cicadas chirping in the empty mulberry forest" to strongly exaggerate the desolate atmosphere, writing with sound, context and emotion. Especially the word "empty" gives people a sense of desolation. Facing the empty forest with all the leaves and hearing the mournful cry of cicadas, how can pedestrians feel embarrassed? The first two sentences of the poem point out the season and the specific location of the frontier, and at the same time, through the description of the cicadas chirping and the mulberry forest in the sky, they exaggerate the desolate and desolate environmental atmosphere of the border area. The word "empty" not only expresses that the mulberry leaves have fallen, but also indicates that the forest is empty and desolate, giving people a strong sense of desolation. The poet also used the sad chirping of cicadas to further highlight the depression and desolation of the frontier. The three or four sentences, on the one hand, hint at the tense situation in the frontier fortress in this autumn season from the border guards' "going out and entering the fortress"; on the other hand, they also show it from the description of the court environment where yellow reeds and dead grass are everywhere inside and outside Xiaoguan. The hardships of soldiers guarding the border.
"The cicadas chirp in the empty mulberry forest, and the road is Xiaoguan in August. When you leave the fortress and enter the fortress again, there are yellow reeds everywhere." These four sentences describe the autumn scenery of the frontier fortress, which infinitely chills the sadness. Border fortresses and autumn grass are both synonymous with tragedy in ancient Zhongwei poetry. The deliberate description of the chilling autumn scene at the beginning of the poem serves as a background and emotional foreshadowing for the later anti-war theme. He writes about recruiting people to guard the border and conveys his deep sympathy.
"We have always been friends and guests, we are all old people in the dust", and Wang Han's "Don't laugh when you are lying drunk on the battlefield, how many people have fought in ancient times", it can be said that it is seen by a hero, with different approaches but the same purpose, and is very touching. deep. Youzhou and Bingzhou were both frontier fortresses in the Tang Dynasty. They were also places where many scholars pursued fame and fortune, "only seeking fame from horses" and "better to be a centurion than a scholar". However, what the poet sees from these young people full of great ambitions is the helpless ending of "all becoming old in the sand".
The last two sentences end with contrast. They profoundly express the author's dislike of war by satirizing the so-called knights who rely on their own bravery, show off that Ziliu is good at galloping, wander around in a show of force, and even cause trouble and disturb the people. , yearning for a peaceful life. When I talked about You Bingke earlier, the author didn't have any derogatory meaning, and there was still a vague feeling of regret for the heroes who gave their lives on the battlefield. The author's anti-war sentiments are expressed in a deeper way by using "errant knights" to describe those street scoundrels who only know how to boast about their good horses.
This poem describes the autumn scenery of the frontier fortress, with a generous and sad Jian'an legacy; it writes about guarding the border and recruiting people, and it also contains the direct sorrow of the Han Dynasty; it is a satirical metaphor for the knights in the city, and it also makes people see the young men in brocade in the Tang Dynasty. Exaggerated atmosphere.