"Farewell" by Li Shutong
Farewell
Li Shutong
Outside the pavilion, beside the ancient road, the green grass reaches the sky. The evening breeze carries the faint sound of willow flutes, and the sun sets outside the mountains.
At the end of the sky, in the corner of the earth, close friends are half scattered; a cup of turbid wine is all the fun, don’t sleep in the cold tonight.
Outside the pavilion, beside the ancient road, the green grass reaches the sky. The evening breeze carries the faint sound of willow flutes, and the sun sets outside the mountains.
"Sorrow, joy, separation and reunion" is an eternal theme throughout the ages and throughout the world. "Where can I wake up tonight? Willow bank, dawn wind and waning moon" is the sadness of separation, "I urge you to drink another glass of wine, there will be no old friends when you go west to Yangguan" is the consolation to friends, "There are close friends in the sea, and we are like neighbors in the world." It is the cherishment of friendship, "The willows are green every year, and Baling is sad to say goodbye." It is the sadness of parting, "The disciples of Jinling come to see each other off, and they all drink together if they want to or can't do it." It is the depression of parting... In the farewell song of classical Chinese poetry "Don't complain about separation" is the eternal melody. After the May 4th Movement, poems and essays that express feelings of separation and resentment are still flourishing, with a flood of masterpieces. Among them, the campus song "Farewell" composed by Mr. Li Shutong is particularly popular, popular all over the world, and will last for a long time.
Li Shutong (1880-1942), whose Buddhist name is Hongyi. He is versatile, integrating poetry, lyrics, calligraphy and painting, seal cutting, music, drama and literature. He is not only a generation of eminent monks, but also a talented music and art educator, calligrapher and drama activist. Modern cultural celebrities such as Lu Xun and Guo Moruo regard it as the supreme honor to receive a calligraphy from the master. With his outstanding artistic attainments, he successively trained famous painter Feng Zikai and musician Liu Zhiping. "Farewell" was written in 1905 when Li Shutong was studying in Japan.
From the overall structure, "Farewell" is very similar to an ancient poem (similar to Xiaoling), with three paragraphs, one and three of which have the same text.
The first section focuses on the farewell environment. The author selected eight typical images of "long pavilion", "ancient road", "grass", "evening breeze", "twilight", "weak willow", "broken flute" and "sunset" to render the parting scene. "Changting" and "ancient road" are places where farewells are written, which reminds us of countless farewells in the history of literature, such as Liu Yong's "The cicadas are sad, it's late in the pavilion, and the showers have begun to stop", Bai Juyi's "The distant fragrance invades the ancient road, and the weather is clear." "Cui meets the deserted city, and sends the king and grandson away, full of love" and so on. "Fragrant grass" is a metaphor for separation. For example, in "Songs of Chu? Recruiting Hermits" there is "The kings and grandsons have not returned from their travels, and the fragrant grass is lush and green." "The evening breeze blows the willows" implies farewell. "Liu" and "liu" are homophonic, and mostly convey feelings of resentment and longing for the future. For example, "The Book of Songs: Picking Wei": "In the past, I went there, and the willows clung to me; now I come to think about it, and the rain and snow are falling." Dai Shulun's "Willows on the Dike": "Thousands of weeping willows, weaving farewell in spring." "Mountain beyond the mountain" is a metaphor. The sky is far apart. And all these farewell emotions are shrouded in a specific time under the "sunset", which only makes people feel the warmth of friendship, the warmth of the setting sun, and the warmth of the evening breeze; warm and lingering.
The second verse focuses on the mood of sending others away, which is the climax of the whole song. Through "end of the world", "corner of the earth", "friends", "scattered", "turbid wine", "night farewell" and "living dreams", it appeals to the senses, touches the heartstrings and entices you to appreciate it. The feeling of farewell will certainly bring about many emotions from the heart! "At the end of the sky, in the corner of the earth, there are only a few close friends." Life spans only a few decades, how many close friends can there be? When will we see you again? How many people can stay together? Those who are in ecstasy are just saying goodbye. "A glass of turbid wine will extinguish all the joy", this is indeed a kind of helpless poignancy. Saying goodbye to the wine, "drinking in all tents", the melancholy is mixed, when can friends get together? Finally, in the intersection of time and space, the author summarizes the whole article in the present tense "Don't dream coldly tonight". From an emotional point of view, the reunion in the dream echoes the "mountain beyond the mountain" mentioned above. From a rhythmic point of view, it is a repeated emphasis, but this repeated emphasis is a further longing, and only lovesickness enters the dream frequency.
The third stanza is an overlap of the first stanza, further heightening the atmosphere of separation. It is an intensification of imagery and repetition of phonology. Among them, the two sentences "The evening breeze blows the willows and the sound of the flute fades, and the sun sets over the mountains beyond the mountains" are repeated over and over again. Together with the looping melody, they form a kind of looping beauty, which deepens the dreamy parting feeling.
The whole word has three stanzas, one starting, one opening, and one closing. It closely follows the theme and creates an intoxicating artistic conception, full of helplessness about life. "All scenery language is a language of love" (Wang Guowei's words), long pavilion, ancient road, fragrant grass, evening breeze, sunset... the scenery remains the same, but when people are away, it feels even more desolate. Its aesthetic effect is echoed in the silence of "after drinking and dreaming coldly". The whole poem depicts such a scene for us: under the setting sun, the mountains are connected, and the green grass is endless; nearby, there are long pavilions and ancient roads, the evening breeze is blowing, the willows are cuddling, and the farewell recorder is sad and resentful. A pair of close friends are about to part ways. Thinking of being separated from each other from now on, both parties feel infinite sadness. They picked up the wine glasses and wanted to use the wine to have the last bit of fun. Farewell while drunk and dreaming, leaving unforgettable scenes of "evening breeze blowing in the willows" and "sunset over the mountains" in each other's memories!
The whole song "Farewell" has a graceful style, fresh and elegant, sincere, poignant and gentle. The lyrics and sentences are of varying lengths, and the sentence patterns are full of changes. The score borrowed the melody of "Traveler's Sorrow", a popular song in Japan at the time (and "Travel Sorrow" by Japanese lyricist Inudo Kakii borrowed the melody of "Dreaming of Home and Mother" by American artist John P. Ordway. ), Li Shutong bottled his own wine and wrote a campus song with a strong Chinese poetic flavor.
That kind of infatuation, that kind of sadness, that kind of nostalgia are unified in the song of "Farewell", and they are a perfect combination, painting and poetry, and complement each other. The rhyme characters of the whole word - edge, sky, mountain, and cold, are all rhymed with an, all pronounced in flat rhyme, with a bright sound. The first two sentences of the second stanza are changed to a uo rhyme, without a rigid feeling, and are harmonious and beautiful.