A trip from a guest/A work from a guest
Dynasty: Tang Dynasty | Author: Li Bai
Original text:
Lanling fine wine, tulips, jade The bowl holds amber light.
But the host can make the guests drunk, and they don’t know where they are in a foreign country.
Translation and annotations
Translation
Lanling wine is as sweet and fragrant as tulips. Xinglai filled the jade bowl, glowing with amber light and crystal clear and charming.
If the host serves such good wine, he will surely make the guests from a foreign country drunk. In the end, how can we tell where is our hometown?
Notes
⑴Kezhong: refers to living in a foreign country. Tang Meng Haoran's poem "Early Cold on the River" poem: "My home is on the Xiangshui River, far away from the Chu clouds, and the tears of the villagers are all gone, and I can see the solitary sail in the sky."
⑵Lanling: Today's Cangshan, Linyi City, Shandong Province Lanling Town, County; one theory is that it is located in present-day Sichuan Province. Tulip: Scents of tulips. Turmeric, a kind of herb, is soaked in wine and turns golden yellow after soaking in wine. Tang Lu Zhaolin's poem "Chang'an Ancient Meaning": "Swallows fly around the painted beams, and Luo Wei is covered with tulips."
⑶ Jade bowl (wǎn): Jade tableware, also generally refers to exquisite bowls. "Answers to Problems and Health Preservation" by Wei Jikang of the Three Kingdoms: "Li Shaojun recognized Duke Huan's jade bowl." Bowl, the same as "bowl". Amber (hǔpò): a kind of resin fossil, yellow or russet, with crystal clear color. The wine here is described as having the color of amber.
⑷But make: as long as. Drunkard: Let the guests get drunk. Drunk, use the method.
⑸ A foreign land: a foreign land, a place other than home. "Collection of Yuefu Poems·Xianghe Song Ci No. 13·Drinking Horses in the Great Wall Grottoes": "I dreamed that I was next to me, and suddenly I felt that I was in a foreign land."
Reference materials:
1. Zhang Guoju ． Commentary on the annotations and translations of the essence of Tang poetry. Changchun: Changchun Publishing House, 2010: 162 2. Yu Shucheng et al. A Dictionary of Appreciation of Tang Poetry. Shanghai: Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, 1983: 335
Appreciation
This poem praises the purity of the wine and the enthusiasm of the owner, expresses the poet's heroic and free spirit, and also reflects It reflects the prosperity of Tang Dynasty society.
Expressing the sadness of parting and the sorrow of being a guest in a foreign country is a very common theme in ancient poetry creation. However, although this poem is titled "Ke Zhong", it expresses another feeling of the author. "Lanling's fine wine is filled with tulips, and the jade bowl contains amber light." Lanling points out the place where we are visiting, but associating it with fine wine, it sweeps away the depressing and sad mood of a foreign country, and brings a kind of fascination. Emotional color. The famous Lanling wine is made from vanilla and turmeric. It has a mellow fragrance and is served in a crystal-clear jade bowl, which looks as bright as amber. It is conceivable that the poet felt happy and excited when facing the fine wine.
"But the host can make the guests drunk, and they don't know where they are." These two lines of poetry can be said to be both expected and unexpected. It is surprising because it is in line with the previous description and the natural trend of emotional development; it is surprising because the title of "A Journey from a Guest" seems to imply that it is about guest sorrow. In Li Bai's writing, it is a completely different expression. . This makes the poem particularly intriguing. The poet is not unaware that he is in a foreign country, and of course he does not miss his hometown at all. However, all these were diluted in front of Lanling fine wine. He was completely dominated by a feeling of lingering, even a joy of being among guests and having fun in the presence of friends. From being in a guest house to being happy without realizing it is a foreign country, this is what makes this poem different from other ordinary travel poems.
The whole poem is full of strange meanings and the image is free and elegant, which fully expresses Li Bai's bold and unrestrained personality and reflects the atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty from one aspect.
Reference materials:
1. Yu Shucheng, etc. A Dictionary of Appreciation of Tang Poetry. Shanghai: Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, 1983: 335
Creative background
This poem was written when Li Bai was roaming Donglu during the Kaiyuan period (the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, 713-741). Li Bai moved to Donglu after his trip to Chang'an in the early years of Tianbao (the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, 742-756). This poem was written in Lanling in Donglu, and with Lanling as the "guest place", it should be written before entering Chang'an. At this time, the society is showing a prosperous scene of wealth and good things, and people's mental state is generally relatively high-spirited. And Li Bai valued friendship, was fond of fine wine, and loved traveling. The mountains, rivers and scenery of the motherland are full of beauty in his mind. At that time, he met Zhang Shuming, Kong Chaofu, Han Zhun, Pei Zheng, and Tao Miao in Rencheng, Donglu (now Jining, Shandong) in Culai Mountain (forty miles southeast of today's Tai'an County, Shandong Province). At this time, although Li Bai had the ambition to manage the world and benefit the people, he also envied the seclusion in the mountains and forests. In this beautiful natural environment, he sang and drank, roared proudly in the mountains and forests, and was naturally happy and arrogant, with no sense of a dead end.
Reference materials:
1. Yu Haidi et al. A complete collection of appreciation of Tang poetry. Beijing: China Overseas Chinese Publishing House, 2010: 140
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