The full poem "Jin Se Fifty Strings Unprovoked" is as follows:
Jin Se Fifty Strings Unprovoked, each string and one column reflects the past. Zhuang Sheng was fascinated by butterflies in his morning dream, and looked forward to the emperor's spring heart filled with cuckoos.
The moon in the sea has tears, and the sun in Lantian is warm and jade produces smoke. Can this feeling be remembered? It was just that I was at a loss at that time.
Translation:
Why does the exquisite zither have fifty strings? Every string and string reminds me of my youth. Zhuang Zhou actually knew that he was just a butterfly longing for freedom. Emperor Wang's beautiful heart and deeds can move Du Juan. The shadow of the bright moon in the sea is like a pearl turned from tears.
Only in the Lantian at that time and place can the good jade like smoke be produced. Those beautiful things and times can only remain in memories. At that time, those people thought that those things were just normal, but they didn't know how to cherish them.
Poetry appreciation:
The year this poem was written is unknown. The first two words of the first sentence as the title have nothing to do with the content of the poem, so it is actually untitled. Because of the hazy artistic conception in the poem, there have always been various explanations, including chanting a poem, mourning the death, self-harming one's life experience, and self-preface to the poem. In recent years, most of the works are about reminiscing about life and self-inflicted misfortunes, which are written in later years. The poem begins with the sad sound of Jinse, "Thinking of the Chinese Years", and the two couplets in the middle show four pictures of his life's confusion, sorrow, sigh, and misty state of mind.
It can be said that the experience of one's life is like a dream or an illusion, the sorrow for the spring is like a cuckoo weeping blood, the talent and abandonment are like a pearl in the ocean, and the longing for something is like the jade smoke in the blue field. The last couplet shows that this feeling is not unique to today's recollection, but was at a loss when experiencing the situation. The whole poem uses pictorial techniques, beautiful images, hazy artistic conception, sad atmosphere, and rich hints to express the mentality of life, which has great artistic charm.
"Jin Se" is Li Shangyin's representative work. All poetry lovers love Tao and recite it, and it is the most famous. However, it is also the most difficult poem to explain. Some people say it is a love poem written to a maid named "Jinse" of the Chu family of Linghu; some people say it is a mourning poem written for his late wife Wang.
Some people also think that the four lines in the middle of the poem can be consistent with the four sounds and emotions of the poem: comfort, resentment, purity, and harmony, and thus infer that it is a poem describing music. In addition, there are also allusions to politics and self-narrative poems. There are many other explanations. For thousands of years, there have been many different opinions, and generally speaking, most people say "mourning death" and "self-injury".