"Cicada" is a five-character quatrain composed by Yu Shinan, a poet in the Tang Dynasty.
The full text is as follows: Drooping down to drink clear dew, the sound of flowing water flows out of the sparse tung trees. The reason for speaking loudly and staying far away is not to borrow the autumn wind.
Translation of the whole poem: The cicada drooped its tentacles like tassels to suck the clear and sweet dew, and its continuous chirping came from the sparse sycamore branches. It is precisely because the cicada is at a high place that its sound can travel far, not by the power of the autumn wind.
While praising cicadas, this poem also uses cicadas to describe themselves and encourage themselves. The poet grasped the characteristics of the cicada's voice and cleverly described it, expressing the principle that people should adhere to the nobility of their ambitions, be strict with themselves, and strengthen their self-cultivation.
Appreciation:
The first sentence, "Hanging down the tentacles to drink the clear dew," describes the situation of the cicada hanging down its tentacles and sucking the clear dew. On the surface, this sentence describes the shape and feeding habits of cicadas, but in fact it contains symbolic symbols everywhere. "Cui Qi" implies showing official status, because in ancient times, "Guanying" was often used to refer to noble officials. In the minds of ordinary people, this noble status is contradictory or even incompatible with "qing", but in the poet's writing, they are unified in the image of "hanging down to drink clear dew". This unity of "gui" and "qing" pave the way for the "qing" in the third and fourth sentences that there is no need to rely on "gui", and the writing is quite clever.
The second sentence "The sound of flowing out of the sparse tung trees" describes the distant sound of the cicada. In ancient times, there was a saying that the phoenix could not live in anything other than a sycamore tree. Here, the cicada's chirping sound is depicted coming from among the sparse tung trees, indicating its noble character. Wutong is a tall tree, with the word "sparse" on it, and its branches are tall and straight, which corresponds to the "autumn wind" in the last sentence. "Liu Xiang", the long chirping sound like the sound of cicadas, is pleasant to the ear. The word "liu" describes the chirping of cicadas as being like a spring, continuous, peaceful and fresh. The word "out" visualizes the idea of ??the cicada's sound, making people feel the loudness and intensity of the cicada's sound. Although this sentence is written only in voice, readers can imagine the high-level elegance of the personified cicada. With this vivid description of the far-reaching sound of cicadas, the talents of the third and fourth sentences are fully realized.
"To speak loudly and stay far away is not to borrow the autumn wind" is the finishing touch of the whole article. It is the discussion of the poem based on the first two sentences. Most people often think that the sound of cicadas is carried far away by the autumn wind, but the poet has a unique understanding and denies this, emphasizing that it is because "living high" can reach far distances. This unique feeling contains a truth: a person with a noble character does not need some external support (such as a powerful position, the help of powerful people, etc.) to become famous.