Li Bai
so bright a gleam on the foot of my bed, could there have been a frost already?.
lifting myself to look, I found that it was moonlight, sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home.
Translation and Notes
Literal translation
The bright moonlight sprinkled on the enough paper in front of the bed, as if the ground was covered with frost.
I can't help looking up at the bright moon in the sky outside the window that day, and I can't help but bow my head and think of my hometown far away.
rhyme translation
The bed is covered with bright moonlight, just like a hazy frost.
Looking up at the full moon, bowing your head makes people homesick.
writing background
the writing time of Li Bai's poem "thinking about a quiet night" was around September 15th of the lunar calendar in 726 AD (the 14th year of the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty). Li Bai was 26 years old and wrote in Yangzhou Hostel at that time. His poem "Autumn Evening Travelling in the bosom" should be a sequel to "Thinking of a Quiet Night" and also written in the same place. Li Bai wrote this famous poem "Thinking about a Quiet Night" which is well-known both at home and abroad.
Appreciation
This poem is about the feeling of missing my hometown on a silent moonlit night.
The first two sentences of the poem are an illusion created by the poet in the specific environment of a foreign country for a moment. A person who lives alone in a foreign country, who is busy during the day, can still dilute his sadness. However, in the dead of night, it is inevitable that his heart will be filled with waves of missing his hometown. What's more, it's on a moonlit night, what's more, it's on a frosty autumn night. The word "doubt" in "could there have been a frost already?" vividly expresses that the poet woke up from his sleep and mistook the cold moonlight shining in front of his bed for thick frost on the ground. The word "frost" is used better, which not only describes the bright moonlight, but also expresses the cold of the season, and also sets off the loneliness and desolation of the poet wandering in other places.
The last two sentences of the poem, on the other hand, deepen the feeling of homesickness through the depiction of action and manner. The word "Wang" takes care of the word "doubt" in the previous sentence, which shows that the poet has turned from a daze to a sober one. He stares at the moon eagerly, and can't help but think that his hometown is also at the moment (refer to: /tag_46249A1.aspx) under the bright moon. So naturally leads to the conclusion of "sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home". The action of "bowing one's head" depicts that the poet is completely in meditation. And the word "thinking" leaves readers with rich imagination: the old brothers, relatives and friends in that hometown, the mountains, rivers, trees and grass in that hometown, the lost years and the past … are all in my thoughts. A word "thinking" contains too much content.
Hu Yinglin, a Ming dynasty, said, "All the quatrains in Taibai are made by mouth, so-called people who have no intention of working but have no work." (Book VI of Internal Compilation of Poems) Wang Shimao thinks: "(quatrains) In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, only Qinglian (Li Bai) and Long Biao (Wang Changling) were extremely ambitious. Li is more natural, and his former residence is Wang Shang. " What is "nature" and "no work without intention"? This song "Silent Night Thinking" is a sample list. Therefore, Hu specially put it forward, saying it was "wonderful in ancient and modern times."
This little poem has neither strange and novel imagination nor exquisite and gorgeous rhetoric. It only uses narrative tone to describe the homesickness of distant guests, but it is meaningful and intriguing, which has attracted readers so widely for thousands of years.
a stranger in a foreign country will probably feel like this: it's just a day, and when it's dead of night, homesickness will inevitably wave in my heart; What's more, it's a moonlit night, what's more, it's an autumn night with a bright moon like frost!
The moon is clear with white frost, which is the night scene of clear autumn; Describing moonlight with frost color is also often seen in classical poetry. For example, there is a sentence "jathyapple is like autumn frost" in the poem "Xuan Pu Na Liang" by Liang Jian Wendi and Xiao Gang. Zhang Ruoxu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty who was earlier than Li Bai, wrote the clear moonlight with "frost flowing in the air" in "Moonlight on a Spring River", which gave people a three-dimensional sense, especially the wonderful idea. However, these are all used as rhetorical devices in poetry. The "could there have been a frost already?" in this poem is a narrative, not a figurative word, but an illusion created by the poet in a specific environment for a moment. Why is there such an illusion? It is not difficult to imagine that these two sentences describe the situation that the guests can't sleep late at night and have a short dream for the first time. At this time, the courtyard is lonely, and the bright moonlight through the window hits the bed, bringing a cold autumn chill. At first glance, the poet looked vaguely, and in a trance-like mood, it really seemed that the ground was covered with a layer of white frost; But after taking a closer look, the surrounding environment told him that this was not a frost mark but a moonlight. Moonlight inevitably attracted him to look up, and a round of Juan Juan Su's spirit was hanging in front of the window. The space in autumn night was so bright and clean! At this time, he was fully awake.
The autumn moon is exceptionally bright, but it is cold. For lonely and distant travelers, it is the easiest to touch their thoughts about autumn, making people feel that the guest situation is depressed and the years are fleeting. Staring at the moon is also the easiest way to make people daydream, think of everything in their hometown, and think of their relatives at home. Thinking, thinking, head gradually lowered, completely immersed in meditation.
From "doubt" to "raising one's head" and from "raising one's head" to "bowing one's head", it vividly reveals the poet's inner activities and vividly outlines a vivid picture of homesickness on a moonlit night.
just four short poems, written in a fresh and simple way, are as clear as words. Its content is simple, but at the same time it is rich. It is easy to understand, but it is inexhaustible. The poet didn't say much more than he had already said. Its conception is meticulous and profound, but it is also blurted out without a trace. From here, it is not difficult for readers to understand the wonderful scenery of "nature" and "no work without intention" in Li Bai's quatrains.