Translation of the work
I was lying alone in the hotel, with the cold light shining on me, and it was hard to fall asleep for a long time. What is it that makes me, a tourist, feel desolate and sad? On New Year's Eve, my relatives in my hometown must be missing me thousands of miles away; my hair on the temples has turned gray, and tomorrow will be a new year.
Appreciation of Works
On New Year’s Eve, the traditional habit is for the family to get together happily and “stay awake till the end of the night, which is called staying up late” ("Feng Tu Ji"). The title of the poem "New Year's Eve" should have evoked the author's beautiful memories of this traditional festival. However, the New Year's Eve in this poem is a different scene.
The beginning of the poem is the word "hotel". It may seem ordinary, but it cannot be ignored. The emotion of the whole poem is born from this. It was a New Year's Eve night. The poet looked at every house outside with lights brightly lit and gathering together happily, but he was far away from his family and was living in a guesthouse. Comparing the two, the poet was moved by the scene. Even the lamp in front of him, which also had light and heat, became "cold". The word "cold lamp" exaggerates the coldness of the hotel and the loneliness of the poet's heart. On New Year's Eve, the cold lights only cast shadows, making it difficult for the poet to fall asleep, and "not sleeping alone" would bring to mind the scene of a family reunion and a happy New Year's Eve, which made the poet even more unbearable. Therefore, this sentence seems to be about the foreground and the immediate things, but it is closely related to the title of the poem from the reverse side, depicting a lonely and cold artistic conception. The second sentence, "Why does the guest's heart turn so sad?" This is an inherited sentence. It uses the form of a question to make the thoughts and feelings more clear, thus forcing the following. "Ke" refers to himself. Because he is among the guests, he is called "Ke". The poem asks, what makes the guest's heart become desolate and sad? The reason was that he was on New Year's Eve. In the evening, the strong New Year's Eve atmosphere surrounded the poet in the guest house with only the shadow of cold lights, and his loneliness and desolation arose spontaneously. The three words "turning to sadness" in this sentence describe the author's loneliness on New Year's Eve; his longing for his relatives in his hometown thousands of miles away; and his sigh at the rapid passage of time.
After finishing one or two sentences in the poem, the poet seemed to be pouring out his feelings at the moment. However, he put aside himself and wrote from his hometown far away: "My hometown is thousands of miles away tonight." "Hometown." "" refers to relatives in his hometown; "Qianli" refers to the poet himself thousands of miles away. It means: "On this New Year's Eve, my relatives in my hometown must be thinking of me thousands of miles away, wondering where I will end up tonight, and how I will spend tonight alone." In fact, this is also true. It is a manifestation of "missing hometown from thousands of miles away". "It's another year in the Ming Dynasty", "Tonight" is New Year's Eve, so it's another year in the Ming Dynasty. From the old year to the new year, I will "think" about it again. This endless pain of longing, and To add new gray hair to the poet. Shen Deqian in the Qing Dynasty commented: "The more meaningful it is to write about relatives and friends in one's hometown and to miss people thousands of miles away." ("Tang Poems") The reason why it is "more meaningful" is because the poet skillfully used "counterwriting" to express his deep feelings. It's more melodious and connotative. This is also a common expression technique in classical poetry, such as Du Fu's "Moonlight Night": "Tonight I am watching the moon in Changzhou, and I can only look at it alone in my boudoir." The poem is about a wife missing her husband, which is actually a reflection of the poet's own feelings. .