Fade, fade! Hu Bugui? If it's not for the king, why are you still showing it!
Fade, fade! Hu Bugui? If it's not for the monarch, why are you still in the mud!
Vernacular translation
It's dark, it's dark, why don't you go home? If it's not for the monarch, why are you still showing it!
It's dark, it's dark, why don't you go home? If it's not for the monarch, why are you still in the mud!
Overall appreciation
Every two chapters of the poem begin with the rhetorical question of "Decline, Decline, Hu Bugui", and then explain the reasons: "Because of Wei Jun, Hu Wei is exposed recently"; "The bow of Weijun is in the mud." It means to work day and night in the dew and mud all year round for the monarch and to support his noble body.
In just two chapters and a few words, the inhuman situation of the enslaved people and their resentment against the rulers left a deep impression on the readers.
In art, this poem has two characteristics. One is to strengthen the language effect by asking questions. Judging from the whole poem, "Decline, Decline, Hu Bugui" does not ask questions with doubts, but deliberately asks questions with preconceived ideas.
Suffering from the oppression of the rulers, the poet worked in the wild day and night, and his family could not come back, which was miserable. It is natural for him to pour out his grievances, but if he is outspoken, it is easy to exhaust them. Adopting this kind of questioning form, which is undoubtedly pretentious and suspicious, makes the poem look sad, but it is also eye-catching and thought-provoking. The so-called self-pity, deep and no resentment.
The second is to use rhyme to set off the emotional atmosphere. The poem * * * consists of two chapters and ten sentences, which not only rhyme, but also rhyme in each chapter. Therefore, the whole poem is compact in structure, short in rhythm and urgent in mood, which fully expresses the pain of workers and the growing determination to abandon tyranny.
From the analysis of the rhyme used in this poem, the first chapter uses micro rhyme and fish rhyme, and the second chapter uses micro rhyme and invasion rhyme, which is more suitable for expressing mourning and sad feelings. Poets with emotional rhymes, through the emotional tone reflected by rhymes, make poetry fully emphasized.
Because this poem is interpreted as persuasion, and scholars who have studied this poem in past dynasties mainly focus on Mao, the word "decline" has gradually evolved into the meaning of "seclusion" in China's classical poems.
Such as Tang's "No wonder I long for a simple life and sigh the old song, Oh, back!" ("Weishui Farmhouse"); Meng Haoran's "Go to your hometown and send it away" ("Send Dr. Xin to Hubei"); Guan Xiu's poem "The East Wind Comes and the Song Fades, The Taoist in the Deep Cloud Calls Home" ("General Biedu") and so on, also illustrates the influence of this poem on later generations.