Sitting alone in the secluded bamboo, playing the piano and whistling loudly.
From "Zhuli Pavilion" by Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty
Sitting alone in the secluded bamboo, playing the piano and whistling loudly.
People in the deep forest don’t know that the bright moon comes to shine.
Translation and annotations
Translation
Sitting alone in the quiet bamboo forest, playing the piano and singing loudly.
No one knows about it in the deep mountain forest, only a bright moon quietly accompanies me.
Notes
Zhuli Pavilion: one of the scenic spots in Wangchuan Villa. There are bamboo forests around the house, hence the name.
Huáng: deep bamboo forest.
Xiao (xiào): The mouth makes a long and crisp sound, similar to whistling.
Deep forest: refers to "secret bamboo".
Taking photos: Corresponding to "sitting alone", it means that there is no one on the left and right, only the bright moon seems to understand people and comes to take photos.
Changxiao: shouting from the mouth, here refers to chanting and singing. In ancient times, some transcendent people often used it to express their feelings. Famous people in the Wei and Jin Dynasties called whistling "Xiao".
This poem describes the leisure life and taste of the hermit. It depicts the leisure life of the poet sitting alone under the moon, playing the piano and screaming. The words and sentences are simple and beautiful, conveying the poet's tranquil and indifferent mood, and expressing the tranquility. A tranquil, elegant and unconventional realm.
The environment in which the poet begins his activities is very quiet. The word "lone" at the beginning left a prominent impression on the readers, and this word "lone" also runs throughout the whole article. "Youhuang" refers to the deep bamboo forest. "Chu Ci·Nine Songs·Mountain Ghost" says: "The rest of the place is dark and dark, and the sky will never be seen." "Zhuli Pavilion", as the name suggests, is a house built deep in the bamboo forest, and Wang Wei sat alone in it. His friend Pei Di wrote in a poem with the same title: "Only mountain birds come and go, and there are no people in the depths." The first sentence of the poem alone creates the image of a person who is leisurely and alone.
The second sentence follows the previous sentence and writes that the poet is leisurely alone, expressing his emotions by playing the piano and roaring. We know that Wang Wei is a famous musician, so after passing the Jinshi examination, he became Tai Lecheng. But he sat alone in the Zhuli Pavilion and played the piano, obviously not for people to appreciate, but to express his own feelings. "Changxiao" refers to chanting poetry loudly with a long voice, such as Su Shi's "He Linzi Zhongzhi": "Sooner or later, Yuan Mingfu will return, and the great songs will roar in the old Xiechuan." It can be seen that playing the piano is not enough to express one's feelings, and then He started singing again. The poem he sang may be this "Zhuli Pavilion".
When describing scenery in the poem, only six characters are used to form three words, namely: "Youhuang", "Deep Forest", and "Mingyue". To use the word "bright" to describe the brightness of the moon that shines on the earth, there is nothing new or clever to say. It is a common statement that everyone uses. As for the word "篁" in the first sentence and the word "林" in the third sentence, they are actually the same thing. They are a repeated description of the bamboo forest in which the poet is located, and adding the words "secluded" and "deep" in front of the bamboo forest just means that It is neither the "three poles and two poles of bamboo" mentioned in Yu Xin's "Ode to the Small Garden", nor is it the "twelve bamboo poles sparse under the eaves" mentioned in Liu Zongyuan's poem "Qingshuiyi Congzhu", but a piece of quiet and peaceful bamboo. Deep dense bamboo forest. Here, it seems that the scene in front of you has been written casually, without any effort to describe or paint.
No one can understand your inner world in three or four sentences. "People in the deep forest don't know" is what the poem should mean. If he didn't care about what people know or don't know, then he wouldn't have written this poem. Since he wrote this poem, it shows that he still hopes that someone can understand him. , but unfortunately what accompanied him was only a bright moon in the sky. The beginning of the sentence is written "people don't know" and the closing sentence is written "the moon is shining", which can be said to echo each other.