Meaning: After going through all kinds of hardships, my hair has grown gray and my temples are full of regret, and my heart is full of decadence, so I stopped drinking the wine glass to express my sorrow.
It comes from a seven-rhyme poem "Deng Gao" written by Du Fu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, in the autumn of the second year of Dali (767) in Kuizhou.
The whole poem is as follows:
The wind is strong and the sky is high, the ape is howling in mourning, and the white bird is flying back from the clear sand of Zhugistan.
The endless falling trees rustle, and the endless Yangtze River rolls in.
Wanli is always a guest in the sad autumn, and he has been sick for hundreds of years and only appears on the stage.
Hard and bitter, I hate the frost on my temples, and my wine glass becomes muddy when I am depressed.
The translation is as follows:
The sky is high, the wind is blowing, the ape's voice is sad and sad, and the gulls are playing and circling in the clear water.
Endless leaves are falling one after another, and the Yangtze River is rolling and rushing.
Sadly sighing at the autumn scenery, I am wandering outside. In my old age, I am sick and I climb the high platform alone.
I deeply regret that my hair on the temples is getting grayer by the day, and I feel sad when I stopped drinking after falling ill.
Extended information:
Creative background
This poem was written in the autumn of the second year of Emperor Dali of the Tang Dynasty (767), when Du Fu was in Kuizhou. This was written by a fifty-six-year-old poet in extreme embarrassment.
His life is still very difficult and his health is also very poor. One day, he climbed alone to the high platform outside Baidi City in Kuizhou. He climbed up and looked at it, with mixed feelings. What he saw aroused what he felt; the bleak scenery of the Autumn River aroused his emotion of his wandering life, and infiltrated his sorrow of old age, illness, and loneliness. Thus, there was the song "Ascending", which is known as the "Crown of Seven Rhythms".
About the author
Du Fu (712-770), with a beautiful character, called himself Shaolingye Lao. He was not ranked as a Jinshi, but he once served as a member of the Ministry of Education and Engineering. In his later life, he was called the Ministry of Industry and Engineering. He was the greatest realist poet in the Tang Dynasty. After the Song Dynasty, he was revered as the "Sage of Poetry" and was called "Li Du" together with Li Bai. His poems boldly exposed the social contradictions of the time, expressed deep sympathy for the poor people, and were profound in content.
Many excellent works show the historical process of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline, and are called "history of poetry". In terms of art, he is good at using various poetry forms, especially rhythmic poetry. He has various styles, but mainly melancholy. His language is refined and he has a high degree of expressive ability. There are more than 1,400 poems in existence, including "Collection of Du Gongbu".
Baidu Encyclopedia - Climbing high