Jiang Xing
Song Dynasty: Yan Yu
Outside the dim light, you can see the vast scenery.
The remaining snow and wild geese are gone, and the tide is growing in the crescent moon zone.
When the sky reaches the end of the water, the boat follows the branches of the trees.
I have been away from home for a few nights now, and I am tired of listening to the singing.
Translation
I was driving on the river in a boat, looking far into the distance, the night shrouded the reeds on the shore, and it was vast.
The snow has fallen, the geese have stopped singing, the new moon is rising, and the tide is surging.
The sky is reflected on the water, as if the sky has come to an end. The boat sails on the river reflecting the treetops, as if the boat is following the treetops.
I have been away from home for several nights. At this time, the boatman sang fishing songs heartily while paddling, but I was tired of hearing it because I had been away from home for so long.
Comments
Ming: dusk. 蒹(jiān) 蒭(jiā): reed, reed. Jian, a reed without long ears. Jia, the newly born reed.
Goose break: The cry of wild geese is interrupted.
杪(miǎo): the thin tip of a branch.
湣歌: A song sung by the boatmen when sailing.
Appreciation
"Outside the dim light, I can see the love in the vast expanse of travel." Jianjia is vast and vast, which comes from the sentence in "The Book of Songs, Qin Feng, Jianjia", "Jianjia is green, and the white dew is frost; the so-called beauty is on the side of the water." The yearning and pursuit of the beautiful woman in the water in "Qin Feng Jianjia" became an eternal plot in the hearts of later generations of poets. Because "the road is long and difficult", the beautiful woman is elusive and elusive, so it becomes eternity. This sweetheart does not exclusively refer to lovers, but can also refer to family members, friends, and sometimes the emperor. More often, it refers to the ideal in the poet's heart. Only ideals truly possess the characteristic of becoming people's eternal pursuit because they are elusive. Yan Yu was quite sensitive to the desolate state caused by the bushes of jacaranda growing on the riverside. The jacaranda was a frequent visitor in his poems. In his "Meeting Zheng Xia's Cloud Dreams in Linchuan", there is this sentence: "Bearing brightly and seeing each other thousands of miles apart" , Lovesickness should last a lifetime. The waves and sails in Dongting open late, and the clouds and birds leave late." It's all about "travel love", one thinking about relatives in hometown, and the other thinking about friends while traveling. However, no matter how the object of longing changes, the medium of longing remains the same, which is "Jianjia". The "dark color" of the evening adds a sense of vastness to the clumps of trees, and highlights the confusion and questions in the poet's heart: "Where is the hometown at dusk? The Yanbo River makes people sad" (Cui Hao's "Yellow Crane Tower" "), the author does not know where his hometown is, he just came to Jiangchu to avoid chaos. Having a home but not being able to return is more painful than being homeless.
"The remaining snow and wild geese are broken, and the tide is growing in the crescent belt." The ancients liked to use broken images to convey their helplessness and despair, such as "waning moon", "broken flute sound", "broken dream", "broken heart", etc. The lingering snow was supposed to be a message that the weather was getting warmer and spring was coming. It should be good news, but the Spring Festival is also a day for family reunions, but the poet has a home and cannot return. Not only can he not return, even the geese that carry the message are cut off. The poet's hope and despair are all there. The phrase "the tide rises in the crescent moon zone" is obviously an adaptation of Zhang Ruoxu's "the bright moon on the sea and the tide rises" ("Moonlit Night on the Spring River"), but the contrast with "Can Xue and Yan Duan" is very neat. This shows the skill of the poet. The bright moon, like Jian Jia, is an image that contains lovesickness, and using the bright moon to express lovesickness is more common and frequent in ancient poetry. "The bright moon rises over the sea, and the end of the world is at this moment." (Zhang Jiuling, "Looking at the Moon and Huaiyuan") "I don't know how many people will return home by the moon, and the falling moon shakes the trees all over the river with love" (Zhang Ruoxu, "Moonlight Night on the Spring River"). If I could take advantage of the moon and return home, my joy would have already overwhelmed the moon. "I send my sorrowful heart to the bright moon, and follow the wind to the west of the night" (Li Bai's "I heard that Wang Changling moved to the left and Longbiao was far away"). Since the sound of the geese has stopped and the message cannot be sent, I can only make a wish to the moon and ask it to inquire. News from my hometown.
"When the sky reaches the end of the water, the boat follows the branches of the trees." Looking far away from the boat, the sky is in the water, the water and the sky are connected, the river and the sky are the same color, indistinguishable from each other; the boat rises and falls and moves forward slowly, while the branches of the trees faintly retreat slowly. The sky is endless, the water is endless, and the boat trip is so long. I really don’t know when this journey will end.
"I've been away from home for a few nights now, and I'm tired of listening to the singing." The poet is thinking about the days when he leaves home every day. Thinking about it every day, and becoming confused as the days go by. The question "how many nights will it take now" shows that the poet has been away from home for a long time, and the poet is counting the number of times he will return home. The sound of the oars is like the tragic song of leaving home in the heart of a wanderer. Each sound and one sound breaks the heart and makes it even more tiring.
"The melancholy is so melancholy at this time that the Jiangnan and Jiangbei roads are so far away" (Yan Yu's "Evening View of Shangguan Wei Chang Wucheng"). Although I am tired of listening to Chu Ge, the way home is "far away"; even though I am tired of listening to it, I still have to listen to it indefinitely.