A note for the absent.
Dao Jia
Sangxi awan decoction
Let's ask the boy,
Yang Zhenning
The teacher is going to collect medicine.
traditional Chinese culture
But towards which corner of the mountain,
yún shēn büzh chü
The depth of the cloud is unknown.
translate
Under the pine tree, I asked the young schoolchildren;
He said that the master had gone to the mountains to collect medicine.
He also said to me, right here on this mountain,
But the forest is deep and dense, and I don't know his whereabouts.
poetic sentiment
Everyone may have had this experience: I went to visit my friend with great expectation, but my friend happened to be out. In this case, what kind of mood will we have? Regret, regret, loss, or helplessness. In the eyes of the ancients, these seemingly negative feelings can actually be a kind of poetry. Just like "Notes for an Absent ecluse", the poet did not meet a hermit, but he made a good poem that has been handed down for thousands of years.
In this poem, the text and the title of the poem have a very close relationship. To interpret this poem, it is necessary to start with its title. The title of "Notes for Absent Poems" gives us the basic content of poetry. The beginning of "seeking" implies a kind of expectation, which makes people curious: what will be the result of the poet's "seeking" process? However, the expectation is followed by "unexpected". This result disappointed the initial expectations. This little poem outlines a general situation for us: the loss of expectation.
However, the title of the poem is just an introduction. With the development of the main poetic style, we will find that this kind of loss has been invisibly dispelled in the poet's pen, and gradually changed from "loss" to "poetry".
In this poem, the poet set up a short question and answer. The setting of questions and answers can often bring a lot of whimsy to poetry. For example, in Hometown Couplet Book, "Children don't know each other when they meet, and they ask where tourists come from with a smile", or "Where is the restaurant, and the shepherd boy shows Xinghua Village" in Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, all of which have become classics in our memory. The questions and answers left for the absent ecluse are unique. As we can see, this poem consists of questions and answers, just like a mini sitcom. The scene is in Panasonic, and the characters are poets and teenagers. The poet asked, the boy answered, plain and straightforward, with profound meaning beyond the question and answer.
The first sentence of this poem sums up the scene very succinctly: "When I ask your students under a pine tree." The image of "pine tree" in this scene has a special meaning. As we know, "Song", together with Zhu and Mei, is also called "Three Friends of Old Cold", which has always been a symbol of the noble character of hermits. Therefore, the word "Song" indirectly points out the identity of a hermit. The boy who appeared in Panasonic gave people a faint smell of seclusion. All the boys around you are already like this, let alone the owner who lives next to the pine tree? But the master did not appear, only in the boy's answer.
The last three sentences of this poem are dialogues between poets and boys. At first glance, it seems to be a question and answer, but it is actually a hidden question and answer. From the boy's concise answer, we can infer three questions of the poet. The first question, of course, is the whereabouts of the hermit. So the boy's answer is: "Take medicine." Now that there is a general direction, the poet naturally wants to explore further, from which he can imagine the second question: "Where to collect herbs?" The boy replied, "On this mountain." Since we are in the mountains, maybe we can meet. So the poet asked the third question further: "Where on earth is it in the mountains?" However, the boy replied, "how do I know through these clouds?" "In the end, I can't know where it is, and I can't find it anywhere.
In these three questions, there are actually very subtle emotional ups and downs and psychological changes. May not meet, may meet, and will not meet in the end. There are ups and downs, and many twists and turns are among them. Such a short answer involves so many aspects.
Not only that, this poem also has a beauty, that is, each poem expands more space than the previous one. The original "When I asked your students under a pine tree" only sketched a small local scene. The second sentence "My teacher", he replied, "went to collect herbs", "has shifted its vision to the whereabouts of the hermit, and the third sentence" But towards which corner of the mountain "invisibly shows a broad picture of the mountain, and" How can I tell through all these clouds? " Make this painting not only broad but also profound. Therefore, the four poems formed a hierarchy from small to large, extremely concise and rich, as if endless, naturally leading people's thoughts to the depths of mountains and clouds.