Origin: Mayflies, an anonymous book in the pre-Qin period.
Original text:
Faint fluttering in the air, fluttering, beautiful coat shining.
Sighing that life is short and my heart is full of sadness, how will I arrange the end of my life?
Mayfly flapped its wings in the air, showing off its colorful clothes.
Sigh, my heart is full of melancholy, where will my life live?
Soft Mayflies just emerged from the ground, gently dancing white Marvin's clothes.
Sighing that his life is short, I am full of melancholy. Where can I find my life?
Vernacular translation: Mayflies' feathers are as bright as clothes. The sadness in my heart doesn't know where it belongs. Mayflies have colorful feathers, as if they were dressed. The sadness in my heart, I don't know where my return is? Mayflies are so shiny, as white as snow in a skirt. Sad in my heart, I don't know where I belong?
Extended data writing background:
Mayflies in Cao Feng, Guo Feng is a poem in The Book of Songs, the first collection of poems in ancient China. This is a poem that laments that life is short and time is fleeting. With the help of a short-lived worm, Mayflies wrote down the short-lived beauty of a fragile life before its death and the confusion about its final death. The whole poem consists of three chapters, each with four sentences. This poem uses the method of contrast and is full of philosophy of life.
As for the background of this poem, Preface to Mao Poetry thinks that it satirizes Cao's luxury, and later generations have both approval and disapproval. It's a bit like neither fish nor fowl to satirize the monarch's luxury with ephemera. But judging from the content of the poem, it conveys the emotions of the aristocratic class, so there should be no doubt. From the specific background of Cao Guo, on the one hand, it has many lakes, which are suitable for the survival of ephemera; on the other hand, its national strength is weak and it is under the threat of a big country, so the literati here may be more worried and sad about life.
Mayflies are tiny insects that live in Shui Ze. Larval stage is a little longer, and some species live to be 23 years old. But it becomes an adult, that is, it does not drink or eat, flies in the air and mates, and ends its life after completing the continuation of species, which is usually a flash in the pan. Mayflies are beautiful insects again. Its body is very weak, with a pair of wings that are large and completely transparent relative to its body, and two long tails. When it flies in the air, its posture is slim and moving.
Moreover, Mayflies like to fly in groups at sunset. When it is in full bloom, it falls to the ground after death and can be piled up into a thick layer. So the death of this little thing will attract people's attention and even give people a thrilling feeling. More than 2,000 years ago, a sensitive poet used this bug in "Ephemera" to write the short-lived beauty of a fragile life before it died, and the confusion about its final death.