The half-autumn moon in Emei Mountain casts its shadow into the water of Pingqiang River.
At night, the clear stream flows towards the Three Gorges. I miss you and go down to Yuzhou without seeing you.
Notes Mount Emei: southwest of Emeishan City in present-day Sichuan.
Half-circle Autumn: The semi-circle autumn moon, that is, the first quarter moon or the last quarter moon.
Shadow: Moonlight.
Pingqiang: The name of the river, now Qingyi River, in the northeast of Mount Emei. It originates from Lushan, Sichuan, flows through Leshan and joins the Minjiang River.
Night: Tonight.
Fa: set off.
Qingxi: refers to Qingxi Station, near Mount Emei in Qianwei, Sichuan.
Three Gorges: refers to the Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge, and Xiling Gorge of the Yangtze River, now at the junction of Sichuan and Hubei provinces. One theory refers to the Litou Gorge, Bei'e Gorge and Pingqiang Gorge in Leshan, Sichuan. Qingxi River is in the upper reaches of Litou Gorge.
Jun: refers to the moon of Mount Emei. One theory refers to the author's friends.
Down: Go down the river.
Yuzhou: the area around present-day Chongqing.
Translation On Mount Emei, a half-moon hangs high on the top of the mountain, and the moon is reflected in the clear water of the Pingqiang River. At night, I set out from Qingxi to the Three Gorges. When I arrived in Yuzhou, I could see you (the moon on Mount Emei). I miss you so much!
Appreciation
From Volume 8 of "The Complete Works of Li Taibai", it is the work of the young Li Bai when he first left Shu. It was written about 725 years ago (the thirteenth year of Kaiyuan). . The whole poem has a clear artistic conception, simple language and smooth phonology. "Notes on Tang Poems": "'Jun' refers to the moon. The moon is in Emei, and its shadow enters the river. Because of the moonlight, the stream is clear, and towards the Three Gorges, the moon suddenly disappears again, and the boat has gone straight down to Yuzhou. The poem has a pure and charming charm. ." The poem begins with "Mount Emei Moon" and points out that the season for traveling far away is autumn. The word "Autumn" is placed at the end of the sentence upside down because of the rhyme. The air is crisp in autumn, and the moon is particularly bright ("The Autumn Moon Shines Brightly"). The word "autumn" is used to describe the beauty of the moonlight. It is easy to pick up and it is natural and wonderful. The moon is only "half round", which reminds readers of the beautiful artistic conception of the green mountains spitting out the moon. The Qingyi River near Mount Emei originates from Lushan County in Sichuan and flows to Leshan County into the Minjiang River. "Shadow" in the second sentence refers to the shadow of the moon, and the two verbs "in" and "liu" form a linking predicate, which alleges that the moon's shadow reflects into the river and then flows away with the river. Watch the moon shadow in the water at a fixed position. No matter how the river flows, the moon shadow will not move. "When the moon goes, I go too." Only when viewers go down the river can they see the wonderful scene of "shadows entering the water of the river". Therefore, this sentence not only describes the beautiful scenery of the Qingjiang River reflected in the moon, but also highlights the boating on the autumn night, making the artistic conception ethereal and wonderful.
There is someone in the second sentence, and the person in the third sentence has appeared: he is setting off from Qingxiyi overnight into the Minjiang River, heading towards the Three Gorges. The young man who "went to his country with a sword, left his relatives and traveled far away" suddenly left his hometown and was reluctant to leave his homeland and his friends. Seeing the moon while walking along the river is like seeing an old friend. However, the bright moon is not an old friend after all, so I can only "look up at the bright moon and express my feelings for the thousand miles of light". The last sentence, "Missing you without seeing me, I went to Yuzhou" expresses the infinite emotions of parting with each other. The words are short but the feelings are long.
Mount Emei - Pingqiang River - Qingxi - Three Gorges - Yuzhou, the poetic landscape gradually unfolds a thousand-mile journey along the Shujiang River for readers. Except for "Emei Mountain Moon", there is almost no more specific description of the scenery in the poem; except for the word "Missing the King", there is no more lyricism. However, the artistic image in the episode "Emei Mountain Moon" runs through the entire poetic realm and becomes a catalyst for poetic sentiment. The meaning caused by it is quite rich: the mountain and the moon accompany people thousands of miles away, and they can be seen every night, making the feeling of "Missing you missing" even deeper. The bright moon is approachable but not approachable, and can be expected but not touched. It is also a symbol of missing friends. The places where the moon is chanted in the poem express the feeling of missing friends while traveling on the river, which makes the poet feel very intoxicated.
Originally, short quatrains are quite limited in expressing changes in time and space, so the general writing method is not to transcend time and space at the same time. However, the span of time and space expressed in this poem has reached a state of freedom. Among the twenty-eight characters, place names appear in five places and the word *** appears in twelve places, which is the only one seen in ten thousand Tang Dynasty quatrains. "Fifth of the four sentences in the place name are included in it, and it is a masterpiece in ancient and modern times, but it is never too heavy" (Wang Linzhou said). The reason is that the poet's experience of traveling on the river and the feeling of missing friends are everywhere in the poem, and the mountains are everywhere. The symbolic artistic image of the moon unifies vast space and long time. Secondly, the treatment of place names is also full of changes. "Emei Mountain Moon" and "Pingqiang River Water" are place names attached to the scenery, which are fictitious; "Fa Qingxi", "Xiang Sanxia", and "Xia Yuzhou" are practical, and their positions in the sentences are also different. In this way, the poems appear traceless and wonderfully chemical.
Wang Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty commented: "This is the beautiful land of Taibai. Among the twenty-eight characters, there are Mount Emei, Pingqiang River, Qingxi, Three Gorges, and Yuzhou. It will be indelible for future generations to see. The beauty of this old furnace hammer."
Everywhere in the poem that chants the moon, it expresses the feeling of missing friends while traveling on the river, which is intoxicating. The poet's experience of traveling on the river and his longing for friends are everywhere in the poetic environment, and the symbolic artistic image of the mountain and the moon is everywhere, which unifies the vast space and the long time.