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Don
You come from my old country,
Tell me what happened there! .
It's plum. When you pass my window,
Is the cold plum in bloom?
[Introduction to the author]
Wang Wei (70 1―76 1) was born in Qixian County, Taiyuan (now Shanxi), and his parents moved to Zhou Pu (now Yongji, Shanxi). Jinshi Ji, Ren Dalecheng, was demoted to Jeju treasurer to join the army. He once sent messengers to the fortress and returned to the imperial officials' secluded city. An Shi rebellion, trapped by rebels, collecting fake posts. Be punished by an officer. Its name comes from a Buddhist in Vimalakīrti, and its heart is Buddhist. Although he was an official of the imperial court, he often lived in seclusion in Linchuan, Lantian. Versatile, able to write good paintings, poetic achievements are good at landscape poetry, detailed description, full of Zen. Su Shi said that "there is a picture in poetry" and "there is a poem in painting", which just pointed out the characteristics and accomplishments of his poetry and painting. He is a representative of the pastoral poetry school in Tang Dynasty.
[Notes]
Tomorrow: refers to the day before leaving home.
Windows: carved windows.
Have you blossomed? Have you blossomed?
No: interrogative words.
[Poetry translation, poetry]
Because you come from your hometown, you should know about it. Did the cold plum blossom at the lettering window on the day you came?
[Appreciation]
The lyric hero in the poem ("I", not necessarily the author) is a person who has lived in a foreign land for a long time. Suddenly, he met an old friend from his hometown. The first thing that aroused him was a strong homesickness, eager to know the scenery and personnel of his hometown. The first two sentences vividly express my feelings in a form that is close to the natural state of life without modification. The word "hometown" is repeated, which shows homesickness; "Should know" at such a time, is it near? However, it shows a desire to know the countryside, revealing a childlike innocence and kindness. Simply describing my feelings, psychology, demeanor and tone in a specific situation is actually a very frugal pen and ink.
There are a long list of questions about "things in my hometown". In the early Tang Dynasty, Wang Ji wrote an article "Seeing the Villagers in the Hometown of Meditation", from the old son of a friend, the nephew of a clan brother, the new trees in the old garden, the width of Mao Zhai and the density of willows to the flowers in the garden, which has not been completed so far. But the "I" in this poem put aside these and asked each other separately:
Did the plum blossom when you came to the engraved window of my house?
As if the hometown is memorable, it is the cold plum in front of the window. This is very unnatural. But this is not a pose.
A person's nostalgia for his hometown is always associated with people, events and things closely related to his previous life. The so-called "homesickness" is completely a kind of "thinking in images", and all the people who are homesick come up with concrete images or pictures. Old friends in my hometown, mountains and rivers, local conditions and customs are all worth remembering. However, it is often some seemingly ordinary trivial events, which cause cordial nostalgia, such as Han Mei at this window. It may contain intimate and interesting events in family life in those days. Therefore, this cold plum is no longer an ordinary natural thing, but a symbol of hometown. It's poetic and typical. So this cold plum naturally became the concentrated sustenance of my homesickness. In this sense, asking "the first cold flower that blooms it" is completely in line with the logic of life. One person.
There are often such unpretentious and poetic works in ancient poetry. It seems so simple that it doesn't need any skills, but it actually contains the most advanced skills. A poem like Han Mei, through special embodiment, is a typical skill, but this skill embodies a plain and homely form. This is the so-called combination of cleverness and simplicity. Wang Ji's poem "Ask a Villager who Meditates His Hometown" may be simpler than this poem, but its series of questions are far less artistic than Wang Wei's. Isn't news worth pondering?