Jinse is one of the representative works of Li Shangyin, a poet in the Tang Dynasty. The whole poem is: I don't know why my Jinse has fifty strings, and each string is a flower-like interval. Zhuangzi daydreaming, a saint, was bewitched by butterflies, and cuckoo crowed in the imperial spring. Mermaids shed pearl-like tears on the moon-green sea, and the blue fields breathed their jade to the sun. A moment that should last forever has come and gone before I know it.
Vernacular translation:
Why do exquisite musical instruments have fifty strings, each of which reminds me of my youth? Zhuang Zhou danced in his sleep and turned into a butterfly, hoping that the emperor would entrust his hatred to Du Fu. The moon, the sea and Jiao Ren shed tears, and the jade in Lantian can only turn into smoke when it is warm. Why do you want to recall this scene at this time, just because my heart was just at a loss at that time.
Creative background:
Li Shangyin is talented and quick-thinking. He was admitted to a scholar in his early twenties. He was jealous of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and was not brushed off. Since then, he has never met his talent. In the "Niu Li Party Struggle", the two sides are in a dilemma, full of doubts, repeatedly rejected, and their ambitions are difficult to achieve. Losing his wife in middle age, expressing his feelings by writing poems, is despised by people. This poem was written by the author in his later years, and there have always been different opinions about the creative intention of this poem "Jinse". Or think it's patriotic, or think it's a memorial to his dead wife, or think it's a theory of self-injury, or think it's a pen to express your thoughts and treat your children. The Historical Records of Feng Chan contains 50 strings of Guser, while the latter is generally 25 strings. However, this poem was written after the death of Li Shangyin's wife, so 50 strings have the meaning of broken strings (once the 25-string Gusser string is broken in half, it is 50 strings), but even so, every string and syllable of it is enough to express the yearning for that wonderful time.
Appreciation: The title of the poem is "Jinse", but it is not a poem about objects. It is just an untitled poem with the first word as the title according to the convention of ancient poetry. In fact, it is an implicit title using documents. This poem is one of Li Shangyin's most difficult works, and the poet has always lamented that "a Jin Se is difficult to understand". In his poems, the author recalled his youth, felt sad about his unfortunate experience, and pinned his feelings of sadness and resentment. He borrows a lot of allusions such as Zhuang Sheng's dream butterfly, cuckoo crying blood, tears in the sea, jade like smoke, etc., and uses metaphor and imagination to transform auditory feelings into visual images, and creates a hazy realm by combining fragments of images, so as to convey them with the help of visually perceptible poetic images. The whole poem is colorful, subtle and profound, sincere and touching.