The meaning of "alone as a stranger in a foreign land": Being alone far away from home is inevitably a bit desolate. It describes the homesickness of a wanderer.
The source is "Remembering the Shandong Brothers on September 9th", a poem written by Wang Wei, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, and included in the Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty
Original text
Alone in a Foreign Land As a stranger, I miss my family even more during the festive season.
I know from afar that my brothers have climbed to a high place, and there is one less person planting dogwood trees everywhere.
Translation
Wandering alone as a guest in a foreign land, I miss my loved ones even more every festive season.
My relatives in my hometown are all climbing high today, and I am the only one missing when planting dogwood trees.
Notes
September 9: the Double Ninth Festival. In ancient times, nine was used as the Yang number, so it was called Double Ninth Festival.
Memory: missing.
Shandong: Wang Wei moved to Pu County (now Yongji City, Shanxi), east of Hangu Pass and Huashan, so it was called Shandong.
A foreign land: a foreign land, a foreign land.
Be a stranger: a guest in a foreign land.
Festival: a beautiful holiday.
Climbing: There is an ancient custom of climbing during the Double Ninth Festival.
Appreciation of the work
The first sentence of this poem uses the word "dude" and two words "different", which is very substantial. The longing for relatives and the feeling of one's own loneliness are all condensed in the word "independence". "We are strangers in a foreign land" is just a way of talking about being a guest in a foreign land, but the artistic effect created by the two words "foreign" is much stronger than the ordinary description of being a guest in a foreign land.
In the feudal era when natural economy played a dominant role, the customs, customs, languages, and living habits of different regions were very different. If you leave your hometown where you have lived for many years and go to a different place, you will feel that everything is strange and unfamiliar. I am used to it and feel that I am a leaf of duckweed floating in a foreign life. "Foreign land" and "foreign guest" express this feeling simply and truly.
The first two sentences can be said to be the "direct method" of artistic creation. There is almost no detour, but it goes straight to the core, quickly forming a climax and aphorisms. However, this way of writing often makes the last two sentences difficult to sustain, resulting in lack of staying power. If the last two sentences of this poem were to be extended in a straight line along the lines of "I miss my family even more during the holidays", it would be unavoidable; it would also be difficult to create a new climax with new ideas. The author adopts another approach: immediately following the torrent of emotions, a rippling lake surface appears, which looks calm but is actually deeper.
Creative background
The original note of this poem: "When he was seventeen." This shows that this poem was written when Wang Wei was seventeen. The poem was written because he missed his relatives in his hometown during the Double Ninth Festival. do.
The poem was written because I missed my relatives in my hometown during the Double Ninth Festival. Wang Wei lives in Puzhou, east of Huashan, so he is titled "Remembering Shandong Brothers". He was probably seeking fame in Chang'an when he wrote this poem.
About the author
Wang Wei (693 or 694 or 701-761), whose courtesy name was Mojie and whose name was Mojie layman. A native of Puzhou, Hedong (now Yongji, Shanxi), his ancestral home is Qi County, Shanxi. Tang Dynasty poet and painter.
Wang Wei participated in Zen and understood philosophy, and was proficient in poetry, calligraphy, music and painting. He was famous among Kaiyuan and Tianbao for his poems, especially five-character poems. He often sang about mountains, rivers and countryside. Together with Meng Haoran, he was called "Wang Meng" because of his sincerity. Worshiping Buddha is known as the "Poetry Buddha". His calligraphy and painting were so exquisite that later generations regarded him as the ancestor of Nanzong landscape painting.
He is the author of "The Collection of Wang Youcheng" and "The Secret of Painting", and has about 400 poems. Su Shi of the Northern Song Dynasty commented: "When you taste Mojie's poems, there are paintings within the poems; when you look at Mojie's paintings, there are poems within the paintings.
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