One of the nine poems about willow branches
Author: Liu Yuxi
The plum blossoms in the north of Saibei are played on the Qiang flute, and the poems about the osmanthus trees in Huainan are played on the hills.
Please don’t play the songs of the previous dynasty, but listen to the newly translated willow branches.
Translation
The "Plum Blossoms Fall" in Saibei is played on the Qiang flute, and the lyrics of "Recruiting Hermits" in the Chu Ci "Recruiting the Hermit" were written in the hills of Huainan.
Please stop playing the songs from the previous dynasty and listen to the newly created "Willow Branches".
Notes
Plum Blossom: Refers to "Plum Blossom Fall" in the Han Dynasty Yuefu horizontal blow music.
Guishu: Refers to "Recruiting Hermits" written by Xiaoshan, a disciple of Liu An, King of Huainan in the Western Han Dynasty. The first sentence of the poem is "The osmanthus trees are clustered in the mountains."
Translation: adaptation; firstly, performance.
Appreciation
Liu Yuxi’s Yuefu chapter "Poems on Willow Branches" has nine poems in one chapter. This is the first of them, which can be said to be the prelude to this group of poems. It clearly demonstrates his innovative spirit in literary creation.
The first sentence "Meihua" refers to the song "Plum Blossoms Fall" in the Han Dynasty Yuefu horizontal blowing music, which is played with a flute (the Qiang flute is a type of flute). Its tune was popular in later generations, including the Southern Dynasties and even the Tang Dynasty scholar Bao Zhao , Wu Jun, Xu Ling, Lu Zhaolin, Shen Quanqi, etc. all have lyrics to "Plum Blossoms Fall", and the content is all related to plum blossoms. (See Volume 24 of "Collection of Yuefu Poems") This sentence means that "Plum Blossoms Fall" originated in Saibei is a piece of music played on a flute.
The second sentence talks about the chapter "Recruiting Hermits" in "Chu Ci". According to legend, a disciple of Liu An, King of Huainan in the Western Han Dynasty, who was a guest at Xiaoshan, wrote the chapter "Recruiting Hermits" to express his condolences for Qu Yuan. The first sentence of "Recruiting Hermits" says, "There are clusters of osmanthus trees in the secluded mountains." There are two sentences in the following, "Climbing the osmanthus branches and chatting in the flood." Therefore, Liu Yuxi uses osmanthus trees in his poem to refer to the chapter "Recruiting Hermits". Although "Recruiting the Hermit" is short in length, its sentimental and moving words have been passed down to future generations. The two lines in the chapter, "The kings and grandsons are traveling and never return, and the spring grass is growing luxuriantly" are particularly loved by later generations of literati. The lyrics of Yuefu miscellaneous songs include the song "Wangsun You". Xie Tiao, Wang Rong of the Southern Qi Dynasty, and Cui Guofu of the Tang Dynasty all have lyrics, namely From this two sentences are derived. (See Volume 74 of "Collection of Yuefu Poems") The second sentence means that "Recruiting Hermits" is the lyrics of Huainan Xiaoshan. "Plum Blossoms Fall" originally came from the northern part of the Great Wall, singing about plum blossoms. "Recruiting Hermits" came from the Huainan King's family, and repeatedly sang about osmanthus trees. They and "Willow Branches" (Ode to Willows) both use trees as the object of singing, and they are similar in content. places, so Liu Yuxi compared them with "Poems of Yangliu Branch".
Although "Plum Blossoms Fall" and "Recruiting the Hermit" were produced in the Western Han Dynasty, they have been passed down to later generations for a long time and were still sung and recited by people in the Tang Dynasty. Scholars of the Tang Dynasty not only wrote "Plum Blossoms Fall" and "Wangsun You", ancient Yuefu poems, but also often chanted these two works in other articles. For example, Li Bai's poem says: "The jade flute is played in the Yellow Crane Tower, and the plum blossoms fall in May in Jiangcheng." ("Listen to the Flute Playing in the Yellow Crane Tower with Shi Lang Zhongqin") "Falling Plum Blossoms" refers to the song "Plum Blossoms Falling". Wang Wei's poem says: "The spring grass will be green next year, will the king and grandson return?" ("Farewell"), which is a paraphrase of the sentence "Recruiting Hermits". This can all illustrate the influence of these two works in the Tang Dynasty.
Although Liu Yuxi also valued the historical status and long-term influence of these two works, he based on the principle that literature must be innovative and proposed to the people of the time: "Please don't play the songs of the previous dynasty, and listen to the new translations." "Willow Branches." He pointed out: After all, the two works "Plum Blossoms Fall" and "The Recruiting Hermit" are songs from the previous dynasty, so don't play them again. Now let's listen to his renovated "Willow Branches". "Breaking Willows" turns out to be an old Yuefu song. Among the Yuefu cross-blowing pieces are "Breaking Willows"; among the drum-horn horizontal blowing pieces there are "Breaking Willow Songs" and "Breaking Willow Branches"; "Song of the Willows", its lyrics are mostly works from the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, and are all written in the ancient five-character style. Many literati in the Tang Dynasty wrote "Poems on Willow Branches", from Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi to many works by Li Shangyin, Wen Tingyun, Xue Neng, etc. in the late Tang Dynasty, but they were all written in the Qijue form of seven-character modern style, although the content still chanted about willows or willow trees. Things related to willows have indeed been renovated in form. People in the Tang Dynasty often sang quatrains to music, especially the seven quatrains. "Yuefu Poems" are all compiled into modern tunes, indicating that they are new tunes from the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
In his later years, Liu Yuxi sang and reciprocated with Bai Juyi. Bai Juyi composed eight poems in the "Willow Branches" group. The first one goes: ""Liu Mo" and "Shui Diao" are sung by every family, and "White Snow" and "Plum Blossom" are sung everywhere. Blow. Don’t listen to the old songs and listen to the new version of "Willow Branches". "Liu Yuxi's "Willow Branches" group of nine poems is composed in harmony with Bai Juyi. Therefore, the first chapter "Plum Blossoms in the North of Saibei" was conceived and composed. Very close in terms of language. In comparison, Liu's two sentences of "Please don't play" are more precise and moving than Bai's two sentences of "Ancient Songs and Old Songs", thus winning the favor of more readers. These two poems not only summarize the poet's creative spirit, but also those who are committed to innovating and bringing forth the old can also use them to express their own thoughts. Therefore, they can be said to be rich in content and inspiring.
The upper and lower couplets of this article are close to duality, the meaning of each couplet is symmetrical, and most of the words are symmetrical, showing the beauty of flowing nature in the general neatness and symmetry.