Original poem:
In the evening, I was unhappy and drove to Gu.
Sunset, infinitely beautiful, only near dusk.
Translation:
I was in a bad mood at night and drove to Guyuan. The sunset is infinitely beautiful, buried by the coming night.
Poetry appreciation
There have been different views on the moral of this poem. Some people think that this poem expresses the poet's dying feelings. Li Shangyin was a victim of the party struggle between Niu and Li in the late Tang Dynasty. In his early years, he was appreciated by Hu Chu from the Niu Party, but later he became the son-in-law of Wang Maoyuan from the Li Party. So the cow should call him ungrateful. After the Niudang came to power, Li Shangyin was repeatedly excluded and frustrated all his life.
However, some people think that this poem is a metaphor for the declining fate of the Tang Dynasty Empire. Because of the late Tang Dynasty in which Li Shangyin lived, the ruling group became increasingly decadent, and the court eunuchs were authoritarian and cronyism. Locally, the buffer zone is in opposition to the central government. If the heyday of the Tang Dynasty was sunrise, the late Tang Dynasty was indeed a sunset near dusk. Li Shangyin's poems like to compare happiness and tranquility, and both of the above explanations have some truth.
However, the poet only recorded a moment's feeling in his poems, which is very complicated, confusing and difficult to describe. In the poet himself, it may not be clear whether it is the feeling of life experience or the worry of home and country, and it may not have a very exact meaning. So it is not necessary and impossible to find a clear meaning for this poem.