Translation of "Drinking":
Living in the human world, there is no noise of carriages and horses. You ask me how I can be like this, my mind is clear and distant, and my earth is quiet. Picking chrysanthemums under the east fence, leisurely, the Nanshan Mountain in the distance comes into view. The mountain air is dense and the sun is setting in the west. The scenery in the evening is really beautiful, and there are even birds flying back together. There are so many feelings that I want to express and explain, but I have forgotten the language.
Appreciation of "Drinking":
Tao Yuanming is a descendant of Tao Kan, the founding father of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. But by his generation, the family had declined. He also worked as an official intermittently for a while, but unfortunately his backing was not strong, his temper was extremely arrogant, and he could not play the tricks of officialdom, so he finally returned to his hometown and became a hermit. "Drinking" is a group of 20 poems written at the beginning of her seclusion. They generally express the pleasure of drunkenness and her thoughts on life. This piece is one of the most famous.
When people live in the world, they must find the value of life, otherwise they will be anxious and uneasy. Society always has a set of recognized value standards, and most people use this as the basis for settling down and living their lives. Take Tao Yuanming's era as an example, power, status, and reputation were the main measures of value. But Tao Yuanming has deeply understood through his own experience: to get all this, he must work hard to gain ground, fight for it, put on airs, brag and flatter horses, observe people's words, and turn the clouds and rain over and over, all of which are indispensable. There is no dignity to speak of here. Since he is willing to withdraw from officialdom, he must deny the socially recognized value scale and find a new explanation for his life.
The first four sentences of this poem express an attitude of escaping from the world, that is, the denial of power, status, fame and fortune. At the beginning, I said that although my residence is built in an environment where people come and go, I can't hear the noise of cars and horses. The so-called "noise of carriages and horses" refers to the scene where people of high status are crowded with people. Tao Yuanming was said to be a descendant of a noble family, but he had little contact with people living in the secular world, and the front door was very deserted. This is a bit strange, so ask yourself in the next sentence: How can you do this? Then it boils down to the core of these four sentences - "The heart is far away and the place is biased." Mentally, we have adopted an alienated, detached, and indifferent attitude towards this world of fame and fortune, and the place where we live will naturally become secluded. "Being far away" means breaking away from the track of social life, which will inevitably lead to breaking away from the people who are running on this track.
So, if society’s value scale is excluded, where can people establish the basis for survival? This involves Tao Yuanming’s philosophical thoughts. This philosophy can be called "natural philosophy". On the one hand, it emphasizes a lifestyle of self-cultivation, frugality and asceticism. On the other hand, it emphasizes the unity and harmony of man and nature. In Tao Yuanming's view, people not only exist in society and in the relationship between people, but even more importantly, every individual life, as an independent spiritual subject, exists facing the entire nature and universe. . From its origin, human life is a part of nature. It is only because people separate themselves from nature and compete and pursue illusory power, status, fame and wealth that have no real value that life is full of joys and sorrows of gains and losses. The anxiety and contradiction of impermanence. Therefore, perfect life can only be found by returning to nature.
If these principles are written directly in poetry, they will become essays; real poetry must be expressed through images. So in the next four sentences, the author still writes about character activities and natural landscapes, and embodies philosophy in the images. The poem says that he was randomly picking chrysanthemums in the garden, and when he inadvertently raised his head, his eyes met Nanshan (Lushan). "Seeing Nanshan leisurely", this "leisurely" is not only the light and leisurely state of people, but also the quiet and comfortable mood of the mountain. It seems that at that moment, a unique melody emanates from the heart and the mountain at the same time. , merged into a light piece of music. The Nanshan Mountain that I saw was surrounded by a layer of vague mist. Under the shining of the setting sun, it showed an indescribable beauty. Flocks of birds were flying back to the mountain together. This is the peace and perfection of nature. It is not as anxious and restless as people in the world, so desperately pursuing things other than life. The poet seemed to have completely melted into nature, and his life had reached a perfect state at that moment.
The last two sentences are the summary of the whole poem: here you can understand the true meaning of life, but if you want to say it out, you can no longer find the right language to express it. The actual meaning is that the harmony between man and nature is fundamentally the feeling of life, and logical language is not enough to express its subtlety and integrity.
Most of Tao Yuanming's poems are written very lightly in literal terms and seem to be easy to understand; but their connotations are very deep and require repeated understanding. For young people, there are many things that they may not truly understand until they have rich life experiences.
The first four sentences, based on specific life experiences and in the form of questions and answers, reveal a universal and very interesting life phenomenon - "the mind is far away and is biased". The four sentences "Picking chrysanthemums" are derived from "My heart is far away and I am biased". It is said that when picking chrysanthemums on the east fence, I accidentally saw Nanshan Mountain, so my eyes were swayed, and I was attracted by the gorgeous scenery of Nanshan Mountain in the evening. When you are in a hut, you are picking chrysanthemums on the east fence; when you are on the east fence, you are longing for the Nanshan Mountains. The main theme of the whole article always shows the word "heart is far away". The "true meaning" of the last two sentences is here, as is the "forgetting words".
The so-called "true meaning" is actually the joy of living a sincere and contented life brought about by this kind of "luck"; the so-called "forgetting words" means that in Tao Yuanming's view, there are always some people who follow the trend of others and follow others' influence, and those who are complicit in the evil cannot experience it. This kind of life is rational and interesting!