Source: Song Dynasty Huang Tingjian's "Sending Yellow Numbers"
Original poem:
I live in Junnanhai, Beihai, and I can't send geese to deliver books.
Peach and plum spring breeze, a glass of wine, ten years of night rain.
Housekeeping, but with four vertical walls, does not cure diseases.
I want to study, my head is white, and apes cry over streams.
Translation:
I live on the northern seashore and you live on the southern seashore. I want to send a book to Hongyan, but it can't fly to Hengyang. The spring breeze sees peaches and plums drinking wine, and the rivers and lakes are down and out. I have been away for ten years, and I often miss you in the autumn rain.
You only have four empty walls to support your livelihood. It's hard. The ancients made a good doctor by folding their elbows three times. I hope you don't. I think you are poor, self-sufficient and study hard, and now your hair is white. Through the miasma-filled mountain stream, the apes wailed and climbed the ivy deep in the forest.
Poetry appreciation
This poem was written in the eighth year of Yuanfeng (1085). At that time, the author worked in present-day Shandong Province and Huang Jifu worked in present-day Guangdong Province, so the poem was expressed as "Beihai" and "Nanhai". They were friends when they were teenagers, but they haven't seen each other for many years now. It is human nature to miss them, but this poem not only expresses the feelings of missing friends, but also contains deeper dissatisfaction and complaints about reality.
The first couplet has a wonderful idea. Because the two places are far apart, the imaginary geese will not take the letter, because according to the habit, geese only fly to Yan Hui Peak of Hengshan Mountain, and no longer fly south, which shows that they are far away from the ends of the earth.
Zhang Lei, a contemporary poet, called couplets "strange words". Strange words are all nominal structures and have no predicates. This combination of images is concentrated, which seems to have deep feelings and long charm here. The last sentence said that I was unforgettable and happy in Beijing; The next sentence says that separation is too long, and thoughts are always there. Images such as peaches, plums, spring breeze and rainy nights in rivers and lakes all contain emotions.
The Necklace Association praised friends for their honesty and talent, and compared their administration to superb medical skills. This couplet is an example of the application of Huang Tingjian's poetic theory. He once said that "the law can't tolerate feelings, but it doesn't make the sentence weak". The sentence "housekeeper" used five words in a row, which violated the rules, but in order to express it, he didn't care whether it violated the rules.
William imagines that his friend's hair is gray, but he is still studying hard and strengthening his self-cultivation. He expressed admiration and worry, because his friend's place was a place with a lot of miasma, and even monkeys cried because of it. Of course, I also expressed great indignation at my friends' failure to be reused and my own failure.