There is a lonely pine tree in the north.
Independent of the barren plateau;
He sleeps, covered with snow and ice.
It takes a long time to wear him all over.
He dreams of owning a palm.
Standing in the far east,
Sad alone, secretly hate and hurt.
In the hot desert.
(translated by Shi Yingzhou)
Heine wrote a set of lyric interludes in 1822- 1823, and his works are full of outstanding lyric talents of the poet. Its content is the poet's love for his cousin Amalie. This love is unfortunate, because the other party is a millionaire's lady, and the poet himself is just a cold Confucian, and there is no chance to realize his dream of combining with it. Therefore, in these love poems, the poet's troubles, pains and disappointments are intertwined. In the form of language, the poet uses simple, natural and flexible spoken language and simple, fluent and concise folk songs to guide the sincere and touching emotional flow.
In contrast, A Lonely Pine Tree is the best poem in the world, and is praised by critics as one of the best lyric poems in the world. In fact, in terms of lyrical images in poetry, it is also unusual. Because from "solitary pine" to "palm", they are all personalized plants or personalized plants. However, the ordinary poetic image has an unusual significance because of the poet's unique artistic treatment. Literally, "Northland" refers to Northern Europe and "East" refers to India. Lonely in the barren Nordic Plateau, covered with snow and ice, this shows that after the poet's lovelorn, his inner sadness and psychological pain are heavy and it is difficult to die. The lonely pine tree dreamed of a palm tree growing in the Far East, enduring loneliness and sadness in the scorching desert. "Palm" is not only the source of "solitary pine" pain, but also its sustenance. In a large number of lyric poems, the lyric subject (I) often corresponds to only one symbol, and this poem corresponds to each other with two symbols in the hands of Loose Dream and Unrestrained Dream, which makes the spiritual ecological environment created in the poem more profound and boundless. Therefore, he deeply expressed the poet's feelings. Another unusual artistic treatment of the work lies in the ingenious and cruel design of the space between poetic images, just like the remnant stars and the rising stars in China's classical poems, which never meet. Here, the sharp contrast between the cold pine tree and the palm symbolizes the eternal separation between the poet and the lover, never combining the pain of hope, and also implies the eternity of the loved one. The bipolar writing of the time-space framework further strengthens the theme of the poem. These unique artistic means of the poet make Lonely Pine Tree stand out in the poetry forest.
(Zhao Guotai)