(Don Li Shen)
Weeding is at noon,
Sweat dripped down the soil.
Who knows the food on the plate,
Every grain is bitter.
[Notes]
1. Unfortunately: Unfortunately.
2. Hoe: Use a hoe to loosen the soil around the seedlings.
[Brief analysis]
This poem is about the hardships of labor, and the fruits of labor are hard to come by. The first and second sentences, "When weeding at noon, sweat drips down the soil", depict farmers still working in the fields under the scorching sun at noon. These two poems choose a specific scene and vividly describe the hardships of labor. With these two specific descriptions, the sighs and warnings in the third and fourth sentences, "Who knows that every grain is hard", are freed from the empty and abstract preaching and become flesh-and-blood and far-reaching proverbs.
This poem doesn't start with specific people and things. It reflects not the personal experience, but the life and destiny of the whole peasant. The poet chose typical details of life and well-known facts, and profoundly exposed the unreasonable social system.
In terms of expression, the author adopts the method of contrast and contrast, which not only gives people a clear and strong impression, but also makes people think deeply, leaving the problem to the readers to think for themselves, thus achieving good results.
About the author: Li Shen (772-846) was born in Wuxi (now Wuxi, Jiangsu). Poets in Tang Dynasty.
Min Nong 1
Li Shen
Plant a millet in spring,
Harvest ten thousand seeds in autumn.
There are no idle fields in the four seas,
The farmer is still starving to death.
[Notes]
1. Unfortunately: Unfortunately.
2. Sue: (Si)
[Brief analysis]
This is a poem that exposes social injustice and sympathizes with farmers' sufferings, focusing on the cruel exploitation suffered by farmers in the old society.
In the first and second sentences, "a drop in the spring and 10,000 kinds in the autumn harvest", the use of "spring planting" and "autumn harvest" can roughly describe farmers' labor. From "one millet" to "10,000 seeds", the scene of bumper harvest is vividly written. The third sentence, "There are no idle fields in the four seas", even states that all the land in the country has been reclaimed, and there is no idle field. The semantics of this sentence and the first two sentences complement each other, thus showing a fruitful and fruitful scene everywhere. The working people have worked hard to create such great wealth. Is it reasonable to have plenty of food and clothing in a bumper harvest year? Who knows that sentence is "that farmer still starved to death." This is really shocking! The word "Jude" is thought-provoking: who deprived farmers of the fruits of their labor and trapped them to death? The word "I still starved to death" profoundly exposed social injustice and condensed the poet's strong indignation and sincere sympathy.
About the author: Li Shen (772-846) was born in Wuxi (now Wuxi, Jiangsu). Poets in Tang Dynasty.