From Liu Yuxi's "Happy Poems and Sad Poems" in the Tang Dynasty, three gentlemen are deeply divided.
Original text:
The elegy of the monarch made me sad to play short songs. There are few empty surprises in the world, but many sacrifices.
The new leaves in Fanglin urge the old leaves, and the waves before the water are the waves after. I hate it all the time, so what if I cry at the sound of the piano.
Translation:
Recite the two quatrains you sent to mourn your dead friend, and let me write this short song, with infinite emotion in my heart. I wonder in vain that there are fewer and fewer old friends in the world, only that there are more and more eulogies in my collection. The new leaves in the fragrant forest keep pushing the old leaves, and the front waves in the flowing water always give way to the back waves. From ancient times to the present, everyone has regrets about mourning the dead. What if they shed tears for their dead friends?
Extended data
The word "Jian" in the poem title means "I", that is, Liu Yuxi himself, Lotte is Bai Juyi, and Bai Juyi is Liu Yuxi's best friend. They are very close and often sing.
Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi were born in the same year. Bai Juyi lived 74 years and Liu Yuxi lived 70 years. They were all very old at that time. In their later years, they had to face the blow of their old friends leaving.
According to the title of the poem, Bai Juyi was saddened by the deaths of his good friends Yuan Zhen, Cui Qun and Cui Xuanliang, and wrote two quatrains to his good friend Liu Yuxi. Liu Yuxi wrote this poem as a reward after seeing it.
Poetry appreciation
This is a work of mourning for the dead, which aroused infinite feelings for life.
The author of the first couplet read two quatrains sent by Bai Juyi, felt the death of his friend, and wrote a poem to express his feelings. Zhuan Xu wrote that when friends die, tributes naturally increase. The pain and helplessness of a friend's death and his loneliness are beyond words.
The necklace couplet "Fang Lin's new leaves urge Kerwin Chen, and the waves before flowing water make waves afterwards" is a famous sentence throughout the ages, which embodies Liu Yuxi's philosophical thought. In spring, everything recovers, and the new leaves in the forest urge the old leaves to change; In the rushing torrent, the waves in front give way to the waves behind.
Here, "Kerwin Chen" and "Qian Bo" can refer to dead friends such as Yuan Zhen and Er Cui, and can also refer to old things by extension; "New leaves" and "back waves" can refer to both new things and the younger generation.