"Long Song Xing" is a Han classical poem, which belongs to Han Yuefu poetry and is from the Han Dynasty. It is a famous article that exhorts people to cherish the time and forge ahead.
Original text:
Long Song Xing
Author: Yuefu Poems
The sunflowers in the green garden are waiting for the morning dew_.
Budze in spring brings brilliance to all things.
I am often afraid that when the autumn festival comes, the leaves of yellow flowers will wither.
When hundreds of rivers reach the sea from the east, when will they return to the west?
If a young man does not work hard, the old man will be miserable.
Translation:
In the morning, there are green sunflowers in the garden, and the crystal dew is waiting to dry in the sun.
Spring spreads the hope of happiness all over the earth, and all living things show prosperity and vitality.
I often worry that the chilling autumn will come and the flowers and leaves will turn yellow and wither.
Thousands of rivers are rushing eastward and flowing into the sea. When will they flow back westward again?
If you don’t know how to be strong when you are young and strong, your hair will turn gray when you are old, you will accomplish nothing, and your sorrow will be useless.
Extended information:
Creative background:
Yuefu is a court music institution established since the Qin Dynasty. In addition to singing the literati's poems praising their virtues to music, it is also responsible for collecting folk songs.
It was greatly expanded during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and a large number of poetry works were collected from the people, with rich content and a wide range of themes. This poem is one of the Yuefu poems of the Han Dynasty. Long singing refers to a free style singing style with the tune of "long singing".
Appreciation:
This is a masterpiece among the ancient Yuefu poems of the Han Dynasty. The poem uses a series of metaphors to illustrate that we should cherish time and work hard early. The first four sentences of the poem describe to us a bright spring scene, with dew still on the green sunflowers in the garden.
After the morning sun rose, the dew dried up, and the sunflower seeds were bathed in sunshine again. Everything in the world is blessed by the rain and dew of nature in spring, and glows with incomparable brilliance. However, when autumn arrives, they all lose their bright luster.
It has become yellow and decayed. All things undergo ups and downs, and people also undergo a process from youth to old age. Time is like water in a big river, flowing eastward into the sea and never to return.
If we don’t cherish time and work hard when we are young and strong, we will only be sad in vain when we grow old! Reading this poem, we will naturally think of the famous quote in "How Steel Was Tempered" about how human life should be spent.
“The most precious thing for a person is life. Everyone has only one life. Therefore, a person’s life should be spent like this: when he looks back on the past years, he will not regret for wasting time, nor will he regret it. Don’t be ashamed because you have accomplished nothing.
In this way, when he is about to pass away, he can say frankly: I have dedicated my whole life and all my energy to the most magnificent cause in the world—— Strive for the liberation of mankind."
Guide readers to work hard in a timely manner and not to waste their time. This attitude towards life is undoubtedly positive. This "Long Song Xing" is different from other literati poems in the Han Dynasty that lamented the shortness of life and advocated carpe diem. It is a poem that sings the opposite tune and is a rare masterpiece.