"Night Rain to the North" uses the scene of "Night Rain in Bashan" to express the author's loneliness of wandering in a foreign land and traveling in Bashan, his deep nostalgia for relatives and friends, his expectation of reunion, and the endless reminiscing of the past. Beautiful wishes of love.
Original text:
"The Night Rain Sends to the North"
Li Shangyin of the Tang Dynasty
You asked about the return date but the return date has not been announced, and the night rain in Bashan swells the autumn pond. .
Why should I cut off the candles from the west window and talk about the rainy night in Bashan?
Notes
1. Send to the North: Write to people in the north. The poet was in Bashu (now Sichuan Province) at that time, and his relatives and friends were in Chang'an, so he said "Send to the North". This poem expresses the poet's deep nostalgia for his relatives and friends.
2. Jun: The honorific title for the other person is equivalent to "you" in modern Chinese.
3. Return date: refers to the date of return home.
4. Bashan: refers to Daba Mountain, at the junction of southern Shaanxi and northeastern Sichuan. This generally refers to the Bashu area.
5. Autumn Pond: Autumn pond.
6. When: When.
7. ***: Adverb, used before the predicate, indicates that the action occurs simultaneously by two or several actors ***. Can be translated as "together".
8. Cut the west window candle: Cut the candle to remove the burnt wick to make the light brighter. This describes a long conversation by candlelight late at night. "The rain in the west window" and "the candle in the west window" are used as idioms, and they are not limited to couples. Sometimes they are also used to write about the longing between friends.
9. But: to look back and recall.
Translation
You ask me when I will go home, but I can’t decide on a date! The only thing I can tell you at this time is that the endless Bashan night rain is filling the autumn pond.
It would be great if one day we could sit together under the west window of our home, cut candles, and tell each other how much we miss each other in the rainy night in Bashan tonight!
Appreciation:
It is now said that Li Geben wrote "The Night Rain Sends to the North". "Bei" refers to people from the north, which can refer to his wife or his friends. After research, some people believe that it was written after the death of the author's wife Wang, so it was not a poem "sent home" but a gift to friends in Chang'an. But judging from the content of the poem, it seems more accurate to understand it as "sending within".
The first sentence consists of a question and an answer. It pauses first and then turns. It is full of ups and downs and is very expressive. Translated, it is: "You asked me the date of my return home; alas, the date of my return is not yet time!" The sorrow of his journey and the pain of not being able to return have already emerged on the page. Next, I wrote about the scene in front of me at this time: "The night rain in Bashan fills the autumn pond." The sorrow of traveling and the pain of not being able to return, which have already appeared on the paper, are intertwined with the night rain, which is continuous and dense, pattering, and fills the autumn pond. , permeating the night sky of Bashan. However, these sorrows and pains only appear naturally through the eyes and prospects; the author does not say anything about sorrow or complain about the pain, but starts from the eyes and prospects, gallops his imagination, opens up a new realm, and expresses "What should we do?" Cut the candles from the west window, but say the wish of "when it rains at night in Bashan". The strangeness of its conception is truly surprising. However, when I put myself in the situation, I felt the sincerity and sincerity, and every word seemed to flow out naturally from my heart. The word "when" (when can it be possible), which expresses wishes, bursts out from the reality that "the return date has not yet been announced"; "***jian..." and "but words..." are A vision of future joy inspired by present misery. Looking forward to returning home, "*** cuts the candle on the west window", so it is hard to say how much I want to return home at this time. Looking forward to being reunited with his wife one day, but "but talking about the night rain in Bashan", at this time, "listening to the night rain in Bashan alone" without anyone speaking, it is also unknown. It is not difficult to imagine how depressed and lonely he felt when he cut a broken candle alone, stayed up late at night, and read a letter from his wife inquiring about his return date amidst the patter of autumn rain in Bashan. However, the return date was uncertain. The author transcends all of this to write about the future, hoping to catch up on everything tonight in the joy of reunion. Therefore, the joy of the future will naturally reflect the pain of tonight; and the pain of tonight will become the material for the night conversation in the future, adding to the joy of reunion. The four lines of poetry are as clear as words, but they are so twists and turns, so profound and graceful, so subtle and meaningful, with endless aftertaste!
Yao Peiqian commented on "Night Rain Sends to the North" in "Li Yishan's Collected Poems": "'It is expected that when you sit in the boudoir late at night, you should talk about people who have traveled far away'" (Bai Juyi's "Handan Winter Solstice Night Homesickness" "), the soul flies back home. This poem also predicts that it will fly back home, which is amazing!" This view is good, but it is only half the truth. In fact, the "soul" "pre-flighted to home" and then flew back to the place where it was detained before returning home, fighting back and forth. And this back and forth includes not only the back and forth contrast of space, but also the loop contrast of time. Guifu said in Volume 6 of "Zha Pu": "What you see in front of you reminds you of tomorrow's future, and this has a deeper meaning." This focuses on space, referring to this place (Bashan), that place (West Window), and this place ( Bashan) reciprocating comparison. Xu Dehong said in "Li Yishan's Poems": "If you translate it from another day and talk about tonight, then the feelings at this time will be profound without writing." This focuses on time, referring to tonight, tomorrow, and tonight. Loopback comparison. In the poems of the predecessors, there are many examples of those who write about being here and thinking about other places and thinking about this place; there are even more examples of those who write about today but think about the future and remember today. But the unification of the two, the coexistence of virtuality and reality, the blending of scenes, and the formation of such a perfect artistic conception cannot but be attributed to Li Shangyin's ability to learn from the artistic experience of his predecessors, his courage to conduct new explorations, and his originality.
The originality of the above-mentioned artistic conception is also reflected in the originality of the composition and structure. The word "Qi" is used twice, one for his wife's question and one for his answer; his wife's question urges him to return early, but his answer laments that his return date is uncertain. "Bashan Night Rain" reappears, and one is the real scene of the guest, closely following his own answer; the other is talking about helping after returning, and answering his wife's questions from afar. And with "what should be" in between, it connects the past and the future, turns reality into fiction, opens up an imaginary realm, and integrates the loops and contrasts of time and space seamlessly. Modern poetry generally avoids literal repetition, but this poem deliberately breaks the convention. The two occurrences of the word "Qi", especially the reappearance of "Bashan Night Rain", just constitute the wonderful loop of tone and composition, which is appropriate. It perfectly expresses the beauty of the artistic conception of time and space, and achieves the perfect combination of content and form. Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty wrote in "Staying with Baojue in Longhuayuan": "I was talking to Gong Jingjing and asked the moon, 'When will it shine back on me?' When I met, I returned (return, return) return (return, return) and asked the moon: "When will I stay in Zhongshan?" Yang Wanli's "Listening to the Rain" says: "I stayed in Yanling in the past year when I returned to the boat. I heard the rain falling on the eaves last night, and I heard the sound of the rain falling on the canopy in my dream." "These two poems are bright and lively, and each has its own novelty. However, it is obvious that they were inspired by "Night Rain Sends to the North" in terms of conception and plotting.
About the author:
Li Shangyin, courtesy name Yishan, also known as Yuxisheng and Fan Nansheng, is a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. His ancestral home is Qinyang, Hanoi (now Jiaozuo City, Henan Province), and he was born in Xingyang, Zhengzhou. He is good at poetry writing, and his parallel prose is also of high literary value. He is one of the most outstanding poets in the late Tang Dynasty. Together with Du Mu, he is known as "Xiao Li Du", and with Wen Tingyun, he is known as "Wen Li". Cheng Shi and Wen Tingyun have similar styles, and they are all ranked sixteenth in their families, so they are called the "Thirty-Sixth Body". His poems are novel in conception and beautiful in style, especially some love poems and untitled poems, which are sentimental, beautiful and moving, and are widely read. However, some poems are too obscure and difficult to understand. There is a saying that "poets always love Xikun and hate that no one writes Zheng Jian." Because he was caught in the partisan struggle between Niu and Li, he was very frustrated in his life. After his death, he was buried in his hometown Qinyang (now the junction of Qinyang and Boai County, Jiaozuo City, Henan Province). The works are included in "Li Yishan's Collected Poems".