Du Xunhe, the Widow in the Mountains
The husband defended Pengmao because of the soldiers, and his linen clothes and temples were scorched.
When the mulberry trees are abandoned, they still pay taxes, and when the fields are deserted, they still collect seedlings.
From time to time, pick wild vegetables and roots and boil them, and spin them into firewood with leaves to cook them.
No matter how deep the mountain is, there should be no way to avoid conscription.
Translation and annotations
The husband died due to the war, leaving his wife trapped in a thatched house, wearing rough ramie clothes, with withered temple hair and a haggard face. The mulberry trees and eucalyptus trees are all deserted, and silkworms can no longer be raised, but silk taxes have to be paid to the government. The fields are deserted, but young crop donations are still collected. I often pick some wild vegetables and cook them with the roots, and burn the freshly cut wet firewood with the leaves. Even if you go deeper into the mountains, there is no way to avoid taxes and corvee.
1. Pengmao: a house built with thatched grass.
2. Ramie: Ramie. Burnt hair on temples: Hair turns yellow due to lack of nutrition due to insufficient food.
3. Zhe: The name of the tree. The leaves can feed silkworms.
4. He: with, even.
5. Spin: chop now. Green firewood: wet firewood freshly cut from a tree.
6. Corvene: taxes, corvee.
Appreciation
This poem reveals the face of society at that time through the tragic fate of a typical character such as the widow in the mountains, and the language is extremely sad and indignant.
In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court and the warlords fought for years, resulting in the killing of people all over the world for ten years ("Crying Bei Tao"), and the birds in the mountains caused the people to worry ("Snow in the Mountains") ) tragic situation, bringing great disaster to the people. The husband of this poem was defending Pengmao because of the war, so he wrote from this era of war and chaos, and summarized the misfortune of this peasant woman: the war took away her husband, forcing her to be alone and flee into a broken hut in the mountains. shelter.
It is withered and yellow, and its face is haggard, but its appearance conveys its spirit. Judging from the description of picking wild vegetables and spinning firewood below, the widow in the mountains should still be a young and middle-aged woman. It is said that her hair on the temples should be beautiful, but due to the hardship, her temples have long been browned and withered, making her look old. . The concise portrait description highlights the character's inner pain and describes her troubled life experience.
However, for such a lonely and pitiful widow, the ruling class did not let go of exploiting her, and the methods were so cruel: paying taxes even if the sangzhe was abandoned, and recruiting seedlings after the fields were deserted. The tax here refers to the payment of silk tax; the levy of seedlings refers to the levy of young crop tax. This is a land tax surcharge added in the second year of Daizong Guangde. It is called because it is levied before the grain is mature. In ancient times, mulberry farming was the basis. Due to the destruction of the war, the mulberry forests were cut down and the fields were deserted. However, the government continued to impose taxes and collect seedlings regardless of the people's life and life. Cruel tax exploitation made it impossible for this lonely and poor widow to make a living.
Sometimes she picks wild vegetables and roots to cook, and spins the raw firewood to burn with the leaves. From time to time, she digs up wild vegetables and cooks them with the roots. It is also very difficult to burn firewood, and it takes a lot of time to burn raw firewood. Burn with leaves. These two sentences use a double emphasis. Through this artistic emphasis, they exaggerate the unimaginable plight of the widow in the mountain. Finally, facing the dark reality that the people are living in dire straits, the poet expresses deep emotion: no matter how deep the mountain is, there should be no way to avoid conscription. There are poisonous snakes and beasts in the mountains, which are a great threat to people. The widow could not bear the oppression of the heavy taxes and was forced to flee into the mountains. However, the claws of exploitation are all-pervasive, and even if one escapes deeper into the mountains, it is difficult to escape the trap of taxes and corvee. The two related words "any is" and "should" are used very well. It can be seen that the poet's brushstrokes reveal the evil nature of the feudal rulers like a dagger.
Poetry is inspired by emotion and touches the readers' heartstrings with emotion. "The Widow of the Mountain" is touching because of its strong emotional color. But the poem is not directly lyrical, but resorts to emotions in the description of the fate of the characters. The poet wrote the widow's suffering to the extreme, creating a strong tragic atmosphere, so that the people's pain and the poet's emotions were naturally revealed through the description of life scenes, creating a touching artistic power. Finally, the poem arouses emotion based on the image description, and leads the reader's sight to a broader realm. It not only allows people to see the suffering of a widow in the mountains, but also makes people imagine the suffering of more people who share the same fate as the widow. suffering. This exposes cruel exploitation on a larger scale and to a deeper extent, deepens the theme, and makes the poem's implications deeper. /p> Farewell in the mountains
Wang Wei Farewell in the mountains
Let’s see each other off in the mountains,
The sunset covers the firewood.
The spring grass will be green next year,
Will the king and grandson return?
Translation and annotations
After seeing you off in the mountains,
I closed the firewood door as the sun set in the west.
When the grass is green again next spring,
Can you come back?
1. Mask: close.
2. Chaifei: Chaimen.
3. Wangsun: descendants of nobles, here refers to farewell friends.
Appreciation
This poem "Farewell in the Mountains" does not describe the scene of farewell from the pavilion, but is ingenious and chooses a completely different starting point from ordinary farewell poems. .
The first sentence of the poem, "Send off to each other in the mountains," tells the reader at the beginning that it is time to say goodbye to each other. The farewell words and farewell feelings are conveyed in one stroke with a seemingly emotionless word "Beginning". Here, there is a jump of time from sending each other to sending each other off. The second sentence jumps over a longer period of time from seeing off the pedestrians in the daytime to covering the firewood at dusk. What did the farewell person feel and think during this period of time? When the poet integrated life into the poem, he cut out all of this and treated it as a dark scene.
Anyone who has experienced parting knows that the moment before a traveler leaves is certainly depressing, but a sense of loneliness and loss often becomes stronger at dusk on the day after parting. , more dense. At this moment when separation and grief are most difficult to deal with, there must be a myriad of things to write about; however, the poem only contains an act of covering up the firewood. This is an extremely common thing that people who live in the mountains do every day at dusk, and it seems to have nothing to do with saying goodbye during the day. But the poet connected these two things that were originally unrelated to each other, making this action that was repeated every day show a different meaning from the past, thus embedding the feelings of separation in the lines and the sorrow of separation in the words. Readers will naturally see the lonely demeanor and melancholy mood of the people in the poem; at the same time, they will also think: after the sunset comes the night, how will they spend this long night after the Chaimen is closed? The blank space left outside this sentence makes people think back to the infinite.
The third and fourth lines of the poem, "The spring grass will be green next year, and the kings and grandsons will not return," are derived from the sentence "The kings and grandsons will not return, and the spring grass will be green" in "Chu Ci Recruiting Hermits." But the poem is about sighing because the wanderer has been gone for a long time and will never come back. These two lines of poems are about the fear that the traveler will be gone for a long time and never come back on the day when he parted with the traveler. Tang Ruxun summarized the content of this poem in "Interpretation of Tang Poems" as follows: The door is hidden in the dusk, and people can only think deeply when they are away; the grass is sometimes green, and it is difficult for travelers to return home. The hard time to return is one of the reasons why we miss so much. The question of whether to return or not, as a question, should be asked to the passer-by when parting, but here it is asked to come to the mind of the resident only after the passer-by has gone and the sun has closed the door, and it becomes an unasked question. suspense. In this way, what is written is not the usual words to say when saying goodbye, but the expression of deep feelings in the heart after saying goodbye, which shows that the person in the poem is still shrouded in thoughts of separation until the sunset. Although they have just broken up, they are already looking forward to his early return. I'm afraid that he won't come back for a long time. As mentioned before, there are two periods of time skipped from the time when the bride and groom are sent off to the time when they say goodbye to the firewood. Here, at sunset on the day of farewell, I think of the green grass in the spring next year, and ask whether I will return by then. This It's another jump from the present to the future, and the jump time is even longer.
This farewell poem does not describe the reluctance to leave the pavilion, but goes a step further to express the hope of reunion after farewell. This is something that goes beyond ordinary farewell poems. At the beginning, the scene of farewell is hidden, and the writing is written after saying goodbye, and then the loneliness of returning home after farewell is thicker and thicker, paving the way for the title of hoping for his return, so he thinks that there is a time for the spring grass to become green again, but it is difficult for the departed person to return. must. The feeling of farewell is beyond words. There is meaning in the mind and taste in the outside. It is truly ingenuity and one of a kind.
Wang Wei is good at picking up seemingly ordinary materials from life and using simple and natural language to show deep and sincere feelings, which are often far-reaching and far-reaching. This poem "Farewell in the Mountains" is like this. Summer in the Mountains
Li Bai Summer in the Mountains
Lazily swinging the white feather fan, naked in the green forest.
Take off your towel and hang it on the stone wall, exposing the top to let in the pine breeze.
Translation and Notes
Too lazy to shake the white feather fan to dispel the heat, I stayed naked in the green woods.
Take off your turban and hang it on the stone wall, letting the cool breeze among the pine trees blow over your head.
1. Naked: refers to the informal manner in which the poet takes off his headscarf in the green forest.
2. Qinglin: refers to the green trees in the mountains that cover the sky and the sun.
Appreciation
Summer and mountains are the key to understanding this little poem. Because it is summer, there are white feather fans; because it is in the mountains, there are fans but I am too lazy to shake them.
There are only four lines in the poem, and the scene described is not large, but it truly and appropriately presents the summer in the mountains and the summer in the mountains to the readers. The summer breeze blew, and the pine leaves in the mountains rustled. The poet took off his turban and hung it on the stone wall in the mountains. It was so cool and pleasant. The whole poem depicts the image of the author who is open-minded and unrestrained, not bound by etiquette and law, and has the style of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Questions and Answers in the Mountains
Li Bai Questions and Answers in the Mountains
When asked why I live in the green mountains, I smile without answering and feel at ease.
The peach blossoms disappear in the flowing water, and there is no other world than this world.
Translation and annotations
Someone asked me why I lived on Bishan. I smiled and did not answer, but I felt at ease in my heart. The peach blossoms on the mountain flow leisurely into the distance with the running water. This place is like a peach blossom source in a different world, which cannot be compared with the ordinary world.
1. Yu: Me.
2. Habitat: residence.
3. Bishan: In Anlu County, Hubei Province, Peach Blossom Rock at the foot of the mountain is where Li Bai studied.
4. Xian: Peaceful, calm.
5. Xiaoran (yǎo): far-reaching appearance.
6. Don’t: In addition.
7. Not in the human world: not in the human world, this refers to the poet's secluded life.
Appreciation
This is a seven-character quatrain with a faint poetic meaning. The first couplet of the poem asks me why I want to live in the green mountains. I smile without answering and my heart is at ease. The first sentence is abrupt and the second sentence is confusing. The title of this poem is "Answering the Common People in the Mountains", so the subject of the question is the so-called common people; the rest, the poet refers to himself; what does it mean and what does it do. Bishan refers to the green color of the mountains. The poem begins in the form of a question, highlighting the topic and arousing the reader's attention. When people are about to listen to the answer, the poet deliberately flicks his pen and smiles without answering. The word "laugh" is worth pondering. It not only shows the poet's joyful and reserved demeanor, creating a relaxed and happy atmosphere; but the smile without answering also has a somewhat mysterious color, creating suspense and stimulating the reader's interest in thinking. The word "mind is at ease" is not only a portrayal of the state of mind of living in the mountains, but also shows that the question of what it means to live in the green mountains is neither new nor confusing to the poet. It is just a leisurely understanding, and the beauty is difficult to compare. That’s all you say. The second sentence is confusing and wonderful in not answering, which adds twists and turns to the poem, making it swaying and fascinating.
In the second couplet, the peach blossoms and flowing water disappear, and there is a different world than the human world. This is a description of the scenery of Bishan. In fact, it is the answer to why I want to live in Bishan. This structure of answering without answering, which seems to be a broken connection, deepens the charm of the poem. Although the poem describes the scenery of flowers disappearing with the stream, it does not have the rustic mood of falling flowers and spring passing away. Instead, it is used to exaggerate and praise it as a fascinating beauty. Because the smile without answering and the discussion in the last sentence all reveal this feeling. Mountain flowers such as embroidered cheeks are beautiful, and peach blossoms flowing with flowing water are also beautiful. They all show different beauties in their prosperity and disappearance according to the laws of nature. However, these different beauties have one thing in common, which is the word natural. . This aesthetic view reflects the poet's freedom-loving, innocent and cheerful character. This kind of environment in the green mountains, which has no fame or fortune, is not desolate and desolate, and is full of natural and peaceful beauty, cannot be compared with the world. But what the world is like, the poet did not explain clearly. As long as readers understand the dark reality at that time and Li Bai's misfortune, the poets Qi Bishan and Aibishan will not be difficult to understand. This world is different from the human world, and it contains many hurts and hatreds in the poet's heart. Therefore, this poem does not entirely express Li Bai's leisurely mood that transcends reality. The word "yixian" is used in the poem to hint at the beauty of the green mountains and to form a sharp contrast with the human world. Therefore, the poem has a flavor of both solemnity and harmony in style, but this is not transcendent. Cynicism and optimism and romance are often wonderfully united in his works.
Although there are only four sentences in the whole poem, it contains questions, answers, narratives, descriptions, and discussions, and the transitions are light and lively and fluent. There is both virtuality and reality when using the pen. The description of the real parts is very vivid, while the brushwork on the virtual parts stops at the touch of a finger. The contrast between the virtual and the real creates a profound meaning. Li Dongyang of the Ming Dynasty once said: Poetry values ??meaning, meaning is valued far rather than near, and light is valued rather than dense; those that are dense and close are easy to recognize, while those that are light and far are difficult to understand. Just like Li Taibai's peach blossoms drifting away in the flowing water, there is a different world than the human world. They are all lighter and thicker, closer and farther. It can be explained to those who know it, but it is difficult to explain it to ordinary people. This passage is very enlightening for readers to understand this poem. The poem rhymes with flat tones and adopts an ancient form that does not adhere to rhythm. It looks simple, natural, leisurely and soothing, and is more conducive to conveying the emotional charm of the poem.