Harvesting in distant fields,
Singing alone while cutting,-
Please stop or walk quietly!
She cut and tied the wheat alone,
Sing a song of infinite sadness,
Hold your breath and listen! A deep and wide valley
It has been filled with songs and overflowed!
There was never a nightingale,
Singing such a charming song,
In the shade of the desert
Comfort tired passengers;
No cuckoo has ever welcomed spring,
The sound of crying is so shocking to the soul,
In the remote Huberley Islands.
Break the loneliness of the sea.
What does she sing? Who can tell me?
Sad notes keep flowing,
Is it to tell the misfortune in the distance?
Is it to carry the ancient war?
Maybe her songs are humble,
Just sing today's ordinary joys and sorrows,
Sing the sadness and pain of nature—
After what happened yesterday, will we meet again tomorrow?
I can't guess what this girl sings,
Her songs are like endless running water;
I saw her singing and working,
Bend over and wave the sickle, and work endlessly ...
I listened attentively to her singing,
Then, when I climbed up the mountain,
Although the song is no longer audible,
It still haunts my mind.
(translated by Bai Fei)
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Lonely Maiden is another lyric masterpiece of Wordsworth. The poem describes an idyllic scene: a girl is cutting wheat in the field alone and singing while working (because the terrain in Britain is high in the north and low in the south, the girl in the lake area is called the plateau girl). The poet Wordsworth passed by and was deeply moved by this ordinary scene. In order not to disturb the girl, he stopped at a distance and listened attentively. It took a long time to leave quietly.
The song that the girl sang softly was amplified by the chord of the poet, which filled the deep valley with songs. At the same time, under the impetus of imagination, the poet's full emotion also overflowed with the singing. "Poetry is a natural overflow of strong emotions, and then it is recalled in silence."-The Lonely Maid is the best example of Wordsworth's definition of this poem.
The poet's ignorance of the lyrics sung by plateau girls is more conducive to the direct lyricism and idealism of music, and also gives the poet more freedom of imagination:
Maybe she sang the elegy of Edward or the elegy of western Western jackdaw? Perhaps, she sang the legendary Arthur expedition, or Robin Hood's ballad? But perhaps, what she sings is not the distant past, but just the ordinary joys and sorrows in the ordinary today-isn't this kind of sorrow and joy in the humble pastoral life more suitable for this plateau girl who bends over and wields a sickle and works tirelessly? Yes, yes, Wordsworth would rather believe that. As a poet, he praised not ancient Rome but his hometown and countryside, and not the king but the villagers. There is his democratic spirit or "ordinary" spirit here. But his rural life is different from that of peasant poet Burns: Burns is warm and generous, Wordsworth is calm and indifferent; Burns wrote that the farmer was himself, while Wordsworth wrote that the farmer was a part of nature.
Lonely Maiden is an idyllic scene, but it also fully embodies Wordsworth's view of nature-pantheism. In Wordsworth's view, nature is sacred and omnipresent. He has a religious attitude towards nature. The country girls in his works, including Michael the old man, Lucy the girl and the lonely wheat cutter in Shan Ye, all seem to be part of nature, so they are sacred. Wordsworth sympathizes with the working people, but his attitude towards these characters he describes is not so much sympathy as worship. These characters are sad and miserable, but they don't wear hair and raise their hands in the air to call for help from heaven. They seem to be sad and have no complaints, and they are integrated with suffering. (At this point, Wordsworth's pantheism smacks of Christianity. )
Then, we heard the voice of the maid filled with the poet's feelings between Shan Ye, which constituted a sad beauty full of natural images. In this sadness that shocked the soul with its ordinary nature, the soul was purified. This is the style of Wordsworth's pastoral poetry.
Wordsworth's poetic language is also natural and simple, which is opposite to the grandeur and elegance of classicism, and has launched a strong impact on the classical norms of ci chapters with the "prose beauty" of poetry. In the third section of this poem, the author adds the attribute "humble" to Song of Wheat Harvest, the attribute "ordinary" to her joys and sorrows, the attribute "natural" to her sorrows and sorrows, and writes the finishing touch of "I experienced it yesterday and will meet you tomorrow" in ordinary and prose language. It is such an ordinary daily sadness that can penetrate everything. At the end of the poem, we find that the sad voice of the handmaid, like the dancing of daffodils in the previous poem, has also been integrated into the poet's mind and turned into the poet's eternal spiritual wealth.
(flying white)