Thoughtful
Lu Tong
At that time, I was infatuated with beauties,
The beauty was as delicate as a flower.
Today the beauty has abandoned me,
The brothel is as far away as the sky.
The moon is shining brightly at the end of the world.
The cicada with green eyebrows is separated from her temples,
The heart is cut off when she can’t see her.
The heart is cut off, thousands of miles away.
In my dream, I was lying drunk on the Wushan clouds.
I felt tears dripping from the Xiangjiang River.
The flowers and trees on both sides of the Xiangjiang River are deep.
Beauty has no worries about the human heart.
More sad, I play the green qin,
There is no sound when the strings are turned up.
Beauty is like a beautiful woman,
I don’t know if it’s rain at dusk but it’s clouds in the morning.
I have been missing you all night long,
I suddenly came to the window and suspected it was you.
Appreciation of Lu Tong's Poems
"Thinking" was originally an ancient Yuefu title of the Han Dynasty. Later generations used this title in many versions, mostly expressing the sorrow between men and women. Lu Tong's poem was written with an ancient title, and its poetic meaning is the same as that of others. But its artistic achievement is the most outstanding of all similar works.
When the poem is written, the title is grasped, and the word "thinking" is grasped and written. The opening two words immediately enter into deep memories. "At that time" refers to the days when I had a happy gathering with the woman. At that time, the beauty was as beautiful as a blooming flower. I was so infatuated with her that I actually got drunk in her home. It can be seen how affectionate the two were at the beginning! But today, when I revisit the old place, I find that the beauty has long since left and will never see her again. Only the beaded foil curtain of the past remains the same, creating a desolate scene that makes people sad and resentful. Then, the word "Tianya" broadens our horizons. In the high sky, there is a bright and beautiful moon hanging. It is constantly moving, round and missing, and missing and round again. Sanwu refers to the fifteenth day, the day when the moon is the fullest. Twenty-eight refers to the 16th day, when the moon starts to change from full to waning. Chang'e is Chang'e. According to legend, Chang'e became an immortal by stealing the elixir and flying to the moon palace. Therefore, the bright moon is called "Chang'e Moon" in the poem. The image of the bright moon is inherently beautiful, and the image formed by the story of Chang'e flying to the moon makes the moon even more beautiful. These two sentences describe the bright moon, which is a metaphor for beauty, and the waxing and waning of the bright moon also implies the separation and reunion of people. "The green eyebrows and cicadas are parting on the temples"
One sentence closely follows the previous two sentences and includes the two above-mentioned meanings. Green eyebrows and cicada-style hair on the temples are all beautiful looks for women, which refers to beauty. An unreasonable separation from a beautiful woman is far more sad than the waxing and waning of the bright moon. Although the moon is waxing and waning, it can still be seen, but the distance between it and the beauty cannot be seen no matter what. This is really heartbreaking and difficult to bear.
From "the heart is cut off, thousands of miles away", the poetic meaning goes further, and the dream is caused by lovesickness. The beauties are thousands of miles away and cannot meet each other in the ends of the earth. They can only be entrusted to the realm of dreams. Wushan Yun is adapted from the story of King Chu Xiang in Song Yu's "Gaotang Fu" who dreamed of meeting the goddess Chaoyunmuyu in Wushan, which means that he saw the beauty in his dream and once again enjoyed the warm life of a drunken beauty sleeping in her house.
However, this is an illusory dream after all. There was "a moment of pleasure" in the dream. After waking up, I felt even more sad, and tears filled my eyes. "Teardrops on the Xiangjiang River" refers to the story of Shun who died on a patrol in Cangwu Mountain. His two concubines, Ehuang and Nvying, couldn't catch up and cried, and the tears shed on the green bamboos to form the colorful bamboos in the Dongting.
The poem intercepts the word "tears" and creates a new meaning, which means that the tears falling due to sadness merge into the roaring water of the Xiangjiang River. This shows how deep the sadness is! The next two sentences are written from a different angle, using happy scenes to express sadness. On both sides of the Xiangjiang River, there are lush trees and bright flowers, presenting an alluring and beautiful scene.
However, without seeing the beauty, these flowers and trees not only fail to make people feel happy, but make them even more sad. She was deeply sad and resentful, so she had no choice but to vent her emotions by playing the harp (Green Qi: Sima Xiangru’s name for the harp, which generally refers to the harp). Although the melody is sublime, because the beauty is far away and there is no close friend to appreciate it, the strings are cut off and no longer played. The above eight sentences, written from the dream to the end, repeatedly express the sadness and sorrow of not being able to see the beauty again.
The last four sentences describe the fantasy after not being able to see the beauty. The first two sentences are written in Sao style, and the same characters and phrases are repeated to form a complex sentence pattern, chanted repeatedly, and expressed an infinitely deep sigh. Among them, "Muyu" and "Chaoyun" still use the literal words of "Gaotang Fu" to express the meaning of the beauty being far away in the world and wandering everywhere. On the surface, the poetry is based on imagination, but it hurts that I don’t know where the beauty is? In fact, I still long for her to return to the old building and reunite with "me" again. The last two sentences may have been inspired by Wang Wei's "Miscellaneous Poems" (Part 2), "In front of the beautiful window in the future, the winter plum blossoms will bloom at the end of the flowers", and came from some enlightenment. It uses the symbolic technique of Bixing to express a strange thought: after a night of hard lovesickness, I went to the window and saw the plum blossoms with blooming buds, with sparse shadows and slanting shadows, and a dark fragrance full of sleeves. "I" simply thought she was The beauty came back from the end of the world to meet "me", which gave me an instant surprise. Here, suspicion is used as truth to express deep lovesickness. And once the illusion disappears and returns to reality, it will be even more sad.
Therefore, in a deeper sense, these four sentences express the unforgettable feelings of hoping to reunite with the beauty but having no choice but to do so.
Lu Tong, who belongs to the "Han School of Poetry", is known for his dangerous and weird poetry. But the song "Thinking" is popular, clear, beautiful and gratifying. There are three main reasons why such artistic effect can be achieved. First, the choice of words and expressions is fresh and bright, and the application of color is light and delicate, without carving or pursuing gorgeous decoration. Secondly, although allusions are used many times in the poem, they all seem to be picked up easily and melted without leaving a trace, reaching a state of taking things with meaning and moving in a spiritual way, which not only enriches the meaning of the poem, but also has popular and lively characteristics. The third is the use of a variety of folk song artistic techniques, such as the "three-three-seven" sentence pattern, the recurrence of certain words and phrases, and the use of continuous couplets between many sentences. These techniques have a strong sense of rhythm and music, creating the characteristics of looping and reciprocating, making the poem rich in folk song flavor, which is both affectionate and popular, and greatly enhances the lyricism of the poem.