"Drinking on the Lake at First Sunny and Later Rain" describes the scenes of sunny days and rainy days in the West Lake.
From: "Two Poems on the First Sunny and Later Rain on the Drinking Lake·Part 2" is a work by Su Shi, a writer in the Song Dynasty. Original text:
Two poems about the first clear day and then the rain after drinking on the lake·Part 2
Song Dynasty: Su Shi
The clear sky is good when the water is shining, but the mountains are empty and covered with rain Also strange.
If you want to compare the West Lake to the West, it is always better to put on light makeup and heavy makeup.
Translation:
Under the sunshine on a sunny day, the water of the West Lake is rippling and shining, which is extremely beautiful; in rainy weather, the mountains are misty in the drizzle, and they also look beautiful. Very amazing. If the beautiful West Lake is compared to the beauty Xi Shi, then light makeup and heavy makeup will look very natural.
Extended information:
Creative background:
Su Shi served as the general magistrate of Hangzhou from 1071 to 1074 (the fourth to seventh years of Xining, Shenzong of the Song Dynasty). He wrote a lot of poems about the scenery of West Lake. This group of poems was written in the first and second months of the sixth year of Xining (1073).
Analysis:
As can be seen from the title of the poem, the poet was drinking and enjoying the scenery in the West Lake. The sun was bright at first, but then it started to rain. He admired two different views. He said: When the sky is clear, the clear water of the West Lake is rippling and sparkling, and the scenery is just right.
When it rains, the green mountains around the West Lake are misty and vast, and if they are there or not, they show another wonderful scene. "Liaoyan", the waves are flashing. "Empty", misty rain and confusion. Both words are rhyming words, which enhance the musicality of the poetic language.
Here, the poet writes about both the lake and the mountains; there are both sunny scenes and the charm of rainy days. It can be said that there is a lot of content. But from another perspective, it is very general, because these two sentences are not only applicable to West Lake.
In fact, this is the exquisiteness of the poet's writing skills. The West Lake is beautiful, but no one can tell exactly what is beautiful and how it is beautiful. If you describe the scenery specifically, you may have some wonderful sentences, but it will always be too real and too specific.
It cannot convey the overall impression of West Lake. Su Shi's two sentences have a high degree of artistic generalization, and at the same time they are very vivid and expressive. They have a lot of room for imagination. They express people's most common feeling of "the West Lake is beautiful" in the language of poetry.
However, the beauty of the West Lake is not the whole mystery of this metaphor. There are some women in history whose reputations are as good as those of Xizi. Why does the poet choose to compare Xizi with West Lake? This is because Xizi is more beautiful than she is.
She and West Lake also have two unique similarities: first, Xizi’s hometown is not far from West Lake and both belong to the ancient Yue land; second, Xizi and West Lake both have the word "西" on their heads, so they sound natural. Made in heaven.
For these reasons, Su Shi's clever metaphor won praise from later generations, and West Lake was also called West Lake. This poem is very general. It is not a description of a single scene or a momentary scene of the West Lake, but a comprehensive evaluation of the beauty of the West Lake.
From the beautiful scenery of West Lake to Xizi as the incarnation of beauty, from the "good sunny days" and "unexpected rain" of West Lake, I imagine that Xizi should also be "always suitable for light makeup and heavy makeup", and it should be used as a metaphor. When I write, I may not necessarily stick to sunny and rainy days.
Which one refers to heavy makeup and which one refers to light makeup. When appreciating this poem, if heavy makeup and light makeup must be classified as sunny and rainy respectively, it may damage the integrity of the metaphor and the ethereal beauty of the poem.