The theme of Li Shangyin's "Untitled": expressing the steadfastness of love.
This is a deeply emotional, lingering and euphemistic poem that praises loyal love. The poet wrote about the rich hatred of parting and the lingering pain of lovesickness in a sincere and implicit way. "Spring silkworms will not lose their silk until they die, and wax torches will turn to ashes before their tears dry up." It embodies the steadfastness of love, the novel artistic conception, and the poetic flavor. It has become a famous saying that has been passed down through the ages.
Original poem
Untitled
It is difficult to say goodbye when we meet, the east wind is powerless and the flowers are withered.
Spring silkworms will not run out of silk until they die, and wax torches will not dry until they turn to ashes.
When you look into the mirror at dawn, you are worried about the clouds on your temples. When you sing at night, you should feel the cold moonlight.
There is not much way to get to Pengshan, and the blue bird is diligent in visiting.
Translation
It is a rare opportunity to meet each other, and it is hard to say goodbye when we part. Moreover, the weather of late spring with the east wind approaching and the flowers withered, makes people even more sad. A spring silkworm spins a cocoon and spins out all its silk only when it dies. A candle's tear-like wax drips dry only when it has burned to ashes. When the woman dresses up and looks in the mirror in the morning, she is only worried that her richness will be like a cloud, her black hair will change color, and her youthful appearance will disappear. If a man moans and cannot sleep at night, he must feel the cold moon encroaching upon him. The other party's residence is not far from here, but it is inaccessible and out of reach. I hope there will be a messenger like a blue bird who will diligently visit my lover and deliver news to me.
Explanation
As far as poetry is concerned, this is a love poem that expresses the love between two people until death. However, many people have always believed that there may be a cover-up in human relations. The two words "difficult" at the beginning of the sentence point out that it is not easy to get together and even more difficult to say goodbye. The emotions are long, the language is colorful, and the writing is extraordinary. The chin couplet uses spring silkworm wax as a comparison, which is very wonderful. It is both painful and unswerving. Then the neck couplet writes that at dawn makeup is in front of the mirror, stroking the temples and injuring oneself, which is self-inflicted; in the good night, the moonlight is cold, and the moonlight is cold, it is out of control for others. I urge you to cherish yourself and take good care of yourself, but you are also affectionate and considerate. It can be said that you have turned around a thousand times, and your expression is graceful. In the last couplet, I hope that messengers will frequently convey good news, and the meaning is graceful, and the flowers are bright and the willows are dark. Two lines about "Spring Silkworms" are exquisite and will be passed down through the ages.
Appreciation
This is the most famous of the poet's many poems titled "Untitled".
The first couplet is a deep sigh caused by extreme lovesickness, highlighting the pain of separation in the reunion and separation. The sentence "The east wind is powerless and the flowers are withered" not only describes the natural environment, but also reflects the mood of the lyricist. Things and self blend together, and the soul and nature have achieved a subtle fit. This kind of description that uses scenery to reflect people's situations and emotions is common in Li Shangyin's works. For example, the first two sentences of "A Night Rain Sends to the North": "You asked about your return date but it has not yet been announced, and the night rain in Bashan swells the autumn pond." The second sentence not only symbolizes the poet's stay in Bashu, but also reflects the boredom of the guest who is away from others. Like "Remnant", realism and symbolism are integrated into one, giving emotions a palpable external form, which is commonly referred to as the lyrical way of embodying emotions in scenery. The word "farewell" does not mean that we are saying goodbye at the moment, but refers to the completed forced separation. There have been lines in previous poems such as "It's so easy to see each other again" (Cao Pi's "Yan Ge Xing") and "It's so hard to see each other again" ("Ding Duhu Ge" by Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty), etc., all of which emphasize the difficulty of reunion. And lament the pain of separation. Li Shangyin takes this a step further and shows that because "it is difficult to meet each other", it is "difficult to say goodbye" - it is difficult to let go and the pain is unbearable. "East wind" highlights the season, but it is also a metaphor for people's lovesickness. Because of the lingering emotions, people are as lifeless as withered spring flowers in late spring. The two words "difficult" contain different meanings. The former "difficult" describes how difficult it was for the two to get together and how much they missed and pursued; the latter "difficult" describes the difficulty of parting and parting. The emotional suffering that both parties endured in the end shows how difficult and bitter the love life of this couple is. The second sentence writes about the late spring that hurts the other person. Flowers bloom by the power of the spring breeze, but when the spring breeze is exhausted, the flowers will wither. If flowers are like this, what can people do? The poet here uses the scene of late spring to further express the deep sadness of what happened in this world.
Zhaolian then writes about the feelings of "it is difficult to meet" and "it is also difficult to say goodbye", and the expression is more tortuous and nuanced. The poet uses symbolic techniques to describe his infatuation and bitterness and his unrepentant pursuit of love. The word "silk" in "The silkworm will not stop spinning its silk until it dies" is homophonic with the word "si". The whole sentence means that one's longing for the other person is like a spring silkworm spinning silk that will stop spinning until death. "The tears will dry up when the candle turns to ashes" is a metaphor for the endless pain of not being able to be together, just like the wax tears will not dry up until the candle burns to ashes. Longing for you will not stop, showing the depth of attachment, but you will be missing her for the rest of your life, but it also shows that there is no time to meet, and the future is hopeless. Therefore, your pain will be with you for the rest of your life. However, even though her future was hopeless, she would love it until death and would remain attached to it for the rest of her life; despite the pain, she could only endure it. Therefore, in these two sentences, there is not only the sadness and pain of disappointment, but also the lingering, burning persistence and pursuit. The pursuit is hopeless, but we still have to pursue it even in the hopelessness. Therefore, this pursuit also has a pessimistic color. These emotions seem to be circulating endlessly, and it is difficult to find their clues; they also seem to form a multi-faceted three-dimensional body, and the whole picture cannot be seen from just one angle. The poet used only two metaphors to successfully express such a complex psychological state, which shows that his associations are very rich.
The sentence "Spring Silkworm" is first of all an association between the lingering love of human beings and the endless spinning of spring silkworms. It also extends from the silkworm spinning to "death" to the unswerving life and death of human feelings. Therefore, it is written "The silk thread will be exhausted until death" gives this image a variety of metaphorical meanings. "Making Silk", a Yuefu Western Song of the Southern Dynasties: "Spring silkworms should not grow old (shouldn't, here means "disregard"), they always carry silk day and night. It's a pity that the tiny body is gone, the lingering will come naturally." The idea is similar to "Untitled" " The sentences "Spring Silkworms" are similar. However, the idea of ??the spring silkworm here, "Why would it be a pity to lose its tiny body", is based on the expectation that "the lingering will come naturally" and the future is quite promising. This is not the case with the sentence "Spring Silkworms" in "Untitled". As far as it expresses the spirit of pursuit, the pursuit it expresses is hopeless, but it does not care whether there is hope or not. The emotional realm is different, and the association is more tortuous. Using the burning candle as a metaphor for painful suffering was not uncommon in Yuefu in the Southern Dynasties before Li Shangyin. For example, "Thinking of you is like a bright candle, burning in the sky in the middle of the night" (Wang Rong's "Since the King Comes Out"), "Thinking of you is like a candle at night, burning thousands of tears" (Chen Shuda, same title), etc. "The wax torch turns to ashes before the tears dry up" also uses candles as a metaphor, but it does not simply use the wax tears to compare pain, but further uses "the wax torch turns into ashes before the tears dry up" to reflect that painful feelings last a lifetime, and the association is deeper than the predecessors. It is much more micro-complex, and the image’s background is therefore much richer. The above four sentences focus on revealing the inner emotional activities, making the indescribable complex feelings concrete, and they are wonderfully written.
The neck couplet speculates and imagines the pain of lovesickness of the other party from the perspective of the poet's thoughtfulness and concern. The previous sentence depicts the image of a young woman "looking at the mirror with makeup, stroking her temples and hurting herself", which hints at the woman's longing and sorrow. "The clouds on the temples change" means that due to painful torture, one can't sleep at night, so that the hair on the temples falls off and the face is haggard. This is what Wu Jun, a poet of the Six Dynasties, said, "The green temples change in sorrow, and the beauty disappears in tears" ("He Xiao" The meaning of "Six Poems of Ximazi showing ancient meanings"). However, the sentence "Xiao Jing" in "Untitled" talks about being sad about the "change of hair on the temples" when looking in the mirror in the morning, and it is "but sad" - only sad for this. This vividly describes the twists and turns of spiritual activities, rather than simply describing the fact that youth is consumed by pain. At night he is languished with pain, and in the morning he is languished with pain. The pain at night is because the pursuit of love cannot be realized; the haggard and sorrow the next day is because of love and the hope of staying young. In short, the haggardness for love is painful and depressed. This kind of lingering and lingering feelings that circulate day and night still expresses the painful and persistent heart song. The next sentence, "You should feel the moonlight is cold" uses the physical cold feeling to reflect the psychological desolation. The word "should" is a tone of speculation and expectation, indicating that everything is your imagination of the other party. The vividness of her imagination reflects the depth of her longing for her lover and the depth of her understanding. It directly describes the desolate situation of a young woman missing her lovesickness on a cold night. She broods in silence late at night, lonely and alone, and feels the biting coldness of the moonlight. The delicate description of the other party's sorrow shows that the poet is considerate of the woman, and it also shows the depth of the poet's feelings.
In the last couplet, the more specific the imagination and the deeper the longing, the more the desire to meet will be ignited. This is its content. Since there was no hope of meeting him, he had no choice but to ask the envoy to greet him diligently and visit him on his behalf. Immortal couple are often used as metaphors for lovers in poetry. Bluebird is the messenger of a female immortal, Queen Mother of the West. Pengshan is a fairy mountain in myths and legends. Therefore, Pengshan is used here as a symbol of the other person’s residence, and Bluebird is used as the lyric protagonist. The messenger appears. This ending of placing hope on the messenger does not change the painful situation of "difficulty in meeting each other". It is just hope in hopelessness, and the future is still bleak. The poem has ended, but the pain and pursuit of the lyrical protagonist will continue. This poem is filled with pain, disappointment, lingering, and persistent emotions from beginning to end. Each couplet in the poem is a reflection of this emotional state, but the specific artistic conception of each couplet is different from each other. They repeatedly express the complex emotions that run through the whole poem from different aspects. At the same time, they are closely connected with each other and vertically reflect the psychological process with this complex emotion as the content. This kind of lyricism, continuous and subtle, successfully reproduces the deep feelings in the heart.
Sentences 1, 3, 4, and 5 in the poem can all be found in similar descriptions from Li Shangyin’s previous poetry creations. Under the influence and inspiration of the previous creations, the poet inherited and learned from it. However, he did not simply imitate his predecessors, but took a big step forward with high creativity, transforming the original relatively simple expression methods into more twists and vividness to reflect richer and deeper meanings. Thoughts and feelings have actually shed their old traces and become new creations. It can be seen from here that the poet's rich literary accomplishment and his exploration of artistic conception and expression methods are important conditions for the achievement of this poem.
In the poetry world of the late Tang Dynasty, Li Shangyin was a great master, as famous as Du Mu at that time. However, in terms of influence on later generations, he surpassed Du Mu. An important contribution of Li Shangyin in the history of poetry is to creatively enrich the lyrical art of poetry. His poetry creations often use clear words and beautiful sentences to construct beautiful images, expressing profound feelings, hidden meanings, and full of the beauty of melodious music. The work that best expresses the characteristics of this style is his seven-character rhyme, among which "Untitled" (mostly in seven-character modern style) can be regarded as a typical example. The poem is named "Untitled", which is Li Shangyin's creation. This type of poetry was not written at one time or place, and most of it describes love. The content is either inconvenient to express clearly, or it is difficult to express it with an appropriate title, so it is named "Untitled".
Some of them may have their own sustenance, or they may have the ability to rely on love. Although many scholars have studied this, but before there is conclusive evidence to prove that there is any sustenance or something to rely on, it should mainly be based on the image of poetry. Treating them as general love poems based on the artistic conception of their composition does not hinder the recognition of their artistic value.
Author
Li Shangyin (about 812 or 813 to about 858), Han nationality, named Yishan, also known as Yuxisheng, also known as Fan Nansheng and Fan Nanzi, was a famous poet in the late Tang Dynasty. His ancestral home is Hanoi, Huaizhou (now Qinyang City, Henan Province), and his ancestors moved to Xingyang (now Zhengzhou, Henan Province). He is good at writing parallel prose, and his poems have high literary value. He and Du Mu are collectively called "Little Li Du", together with Wen Tingyun are called "Wen Li", and together with Li He and Li Bai, they are called "Three Lis". Because the style of poetry is similar to that of Duan Chengshi and Wen Tingyun of the same period, and all three of them were ranked sixteenth in their families, they were collectively called the "Thirty-sixth Style". His poems are novel in conception and rich in style, especially some of his love poems, which are so touching and pathos that they are widely read. But it is too obscure and confusing to understand. There is a saying that "poets always love Xikun and hate that no one writes Zheng Jian." Because he was caught in the partisan struggle between Niu and Li, he was very frustrated in his life. After his death, he was buried in his hometown Qinyang (the junction of today's Qinyang and Boai County). According to the "New Book of Tang", there are twenty volumes of "Collection of Fan Nanjia", twenty volumes of "Collection of Fan Nan B", three volumes of "Poems from Yuxi", one volume of "Fu" and one volume of "Wen". Some of the works have been lost.