"Dan Ge Xing" with pinyin version:
Translation:
Singing while drinking, life is short and the days and months fly by. Just like the morning dew, it is fleeting and there are too many lost days!
The singing at the banquet was passionate and generous, and melancholy filled my heart for a long time. What can you rely on to relieve your depression? Only binge drinking can provide relief.
Those students wearing green collars (the attire of bachelors in the Zhou Dynasty), you make me yearn for you day and night. It's just because of you that I still recite it in pain.
Under the sunshine, the deer chirped happily and ate leisurely on the green slope. Once talented people from all over the world come to my house, I will play the harp and the sheng to entertain the guests.
When will I be able to pick up the bright moon hanging in the sky? The sorrow and anger I have stored in my heart suddenly spurt out and form a river.
Guests from far away came to visit me one by one along the field roads. After a long absence, they reunited for a heart-to-heart talk and a banquet, vying to tell the story of their past friendship.
The moonlight was bright and the stars were sparse, and a group of nesting magpies flew south. They flew around the tree for three weeks without folding their wings. Where can they find shelter?
The mountains are majestic only if they do not abandon the earth and rocks, and the sea is majestic only if it does not abandon the trickle of water. I wish to be as courteous and virtuous as the Duke of Zhou, and wish that all the heroes in the world would sincerely submit to me.
Appreciation:
The theme of "Dan Ge Xing" is very clear, that is, the author is thirsty for talents and hopes that talents will come to him. In his political activities, in order to expand the basis of his rule among the common landowners and combat the reactionary hereditary powerful forces, Cao Cao strongly emphasized the "evaluation of talents only". "Shi Ling", "Qiu Yi Cai Ling", etc.; and "Dan Ge Xing" is actually a "Song of Seeking Virtue", and because it uses the form of poetry and contains rich lyrical elements, it can play a unique role The contagious effect effectively propagated the ideas he insisted on and coordinated with the decrees he issued.
"Dan Ge Xing" is a very political poem, mainly serving the political line and political strategies implemented by Cao Cao at that time; however, its political content and meaning are completely melted in the rich lyrical artistic conception. Among them, the whole poem gives full play to the specialty of poetry creation, and accurately and skillfully uses Bixing techniques to achieve the purpose of integrating reason with emotion and touching people. In Cao Cao's time, he was already able to achieve the desired social effects according to the special rules of lyric poetry. This creative experience is obviously worth learning from. At the same time, because Cao Cao's emphasis on "approving talents only" had certain progressive significance at the time, his highly artistic expression of the theme of "seeking talents" should also be recognized by history.