on meeting li guinian down the river is the work of Du Fu, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty. This poem is the most lyrical and meaningful of Du Fu's quatrains. The first two sentences are to recall the contact with Li Guinian in the past and to express the poet's concern for the prosperity of Kaiyuan in the early years; The last two sentences are feelings about the decline of state affairs and the drift of artists. In the poem, remembering the present and thinking about the past, the chaos of the world, the ups and downs of the years, the gathering and dispersion of human feelings, the vicissitudes of the times and the great changes in life are all concentrated in this short 28-character.
The original
It's common to see in Qiwang's house, but I heard it several times before Cui Jiutang.
It's the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, and it's the time when flowers fall.
Note
Li Guinian: a famous musician in the Tang Dynasty, was appreciated by Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and later lived in the south of the Yangtze River.
Qiwang: The younger brother of Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, whose name is Li Longfan, is famous for his love of learning and talent, and his elegant temperament.
normal: often.
Cui Jiu: Cui Di, the ninth among the brothers, is the younger brother of Cui Shu, who was ordered by the secretariat. When Xuanzong was in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, he used to be a supervisor in the temple, and he was favored by Xuanzong. Cui was a famous surname at that time, which showed that Li Guinian was appreciated.
Jiangnan: This refers to the present area of Hunan Province.
flower falling season: late spring, usually referring to March of the lunar calendar. There are many meanings of falling flowers, people are aging and falling, and the social ills and chaos are among them.
jun: Li Guinian.
Translation
I often saw your performances in Qiwang House, and I heard your singing many times in front of Cui Jiutang, enjoying your art.
It's late spring in the south of the Yangtze River. I didn't expect to meet you as an old acquaintance.
Appreciation
"It's common to see in Qiwang's house, but I heard it several times before Cui Jiutang." Although the poet is recalling his contact with Li Guinian in the past, what he reveals is his deep nostalgia for "the heyday of Kaiyuan". These two sentences seem very light, but the feelings they contain are deep and dignified. "Qi Wang Zhai Li" and "Cui Jiu Tang Qian" seem to be blurted out, but in the eyes of the parties, the places where these two literary celebrities often gather elegantly are the places where the rich and colorful spiritual culture of the heyday of Kaiyuan period is concentrated, and their names are enough to evoke the poet's good memories of "heyday".
In those days, it was "ordinary" for poets to come into contact with such an artistic star as Li Guinian, but it was not difficult to "get a few degrees". Looking back many years later, it was simply an unattainable dream. The feeling of the separation between heaven and earth contained here, the reader must combine the following two sentences to taste it. In the overlapping singing and chanting, the two poems reveal the poet's infinite attachment to the heyday of Kaiyuan, as if to prolong the aftertaste.
Memories like dreams, after all, can't change the present reality. "It's the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River, and it's the season of falling flowers." Jiangnan, with beautiful scenery, was originally the place where poets yearned for a happy tour in the era of Chengping. In the meantime, the poet is really faced with the "falling season" with withered eyes and the wandering artists with white heads. The "falling flower season" is like an impromptu book, and it is like a special care, and it is between intentional and unintentional. These four words are a metaphor for the decline of the world, social unrest and the poet's decline and illness, but the poet is not deliberately figurative at all, and this writing is particularly confusing. In addition, the two function words "exactly" and "you" in the two sentences turn and fall, and there is infinite emotion between the lines. The beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River is just a powerful contrast to the chaotic departure from the times and the sinking life experience.
An old singer and an old poet reunited in the drift, and the flowing scenery dotted with two haggard old people became a typical painting of the vicissitudes of the times. It has mercilessly confirmed that "the heyday of Kaiyuan" has become a historical relic, and an earth-shaking upheaval has reduced Du Fu and Li Guinian, who have experienced prosperous times, to the point of misfortune. Feelings are deep, but the poet wrote that "when the flowers fall, he meets the monarch again", but he accepted it with gloom, and he was pregnant with deep sighs and painful sadness in silence. So "at the beginning but at the end", I don't even want to say a word, which is very meaningful.
Shen Deqian commented on this poem in the Qing Dynasty: "The meaning has not been applied, and the case has not been broken." The poet's meaning of "not applying" is not difficult to understand for Li Guinian, a party with similar experience; For later readers who are good at knowing people and discussing the world, it is not difficult to grasp. As Li Guinian sang in "The Palace of Eternal Life, Tanci", "Singing endless dreams of rise and fall, lamenting endless sadness, and sighing sadly at the mountains and rivers", etc., although singing repeatedly, the meaning is not more than that of Du Fu's poems, but it is very much like a playwright's deduction from Du Fu's poems.