Tang Dynasty: Du Mu
In the autumn night, candlelight reflected the screen, and Fan slapped the fireflies with his hand.
The stone steps at night are as cold as cold water, sitting and staring at the cowherd and the weaver girl. (the first work of the Japanese order: Tianjie; Lie down and watch: sit and watch)
translate
The candlelight of the silver candle reflects the barren painting screen, flapping fireflies with a small fan.
The stone steps in the night are as cold as cold water, and you sit still and stare at the cowherd and weaver girl on both sides of the Tianhe River.
The first sentence is a connecting link.
This poem is about the loneliness and bitterness of a frustrated girl's life.
The first two sentences have painted a picture of life in the palace. On an autumn night, the silvery white candle gives off a faint light, adding a dim and cold tone to the picture on the screen. At this time, a lonely maid-in-waiting was flapping the flying fireflies with a small fan. This sentence is very implicit and contains three meanings: first, the ancients said that rotten grass turned into fireflies. Although unscientific, fireflies were always born in those desolate places between grass graves. Nowadays, there are fireflies flying in the courtyard where maids live, and the bleak life of maids can be imagined. Secondly, we can imagine the loneliness and boredom of the maid-in-waiting from her flapping fireflies. With nothing to do, she had to release fireflies to amuse her lonely years. She slapped the firefly with a small fan, and suddenly seemed to want to drive away the loneliness and loneliness that surrounded her, but it was useless. Thirdly, the small fan in the hand of the maid-in-waiting is symbolic. Fans were originally used for cooling in summer, but they are useless in autumn. Therefore, autumn fan is often used as a metaphor for abandoning a wife in ancient poetry. In this poem, the "small fan" symbolizes the fate of the maid-in-waiting who holds the fan being abandoned.
The "Riling" in "Riling Night as Cool as Water" refers to the stone steps in the palace. "The night is as cold as water" means that the night is deep and the chill attacks people. It's time to go into the house and sleep. But the maid-in-waiting still sat on the stone steps, looking up at the Altair and Vega on both sides of the Tianhe River. According to folklore, the Weaver Girl is the granddaughter of the Emperor of Heaven. She marries the cow and petunia and meets him once a year when crossing the river on Qixi, with a magpie as the bridge. The "distant Altair" in Nineteen Ancient Poems of Han Dynasty is to write their stories. The maid-in-waiting watched Penny Weaver for a long time and didn't want to sleep at night, because the story of Penny Weaver touched her heart, reminded her of her unfortunate life experience and made her yearn for sincere love. It can be said that it is full of worries and expectations.
Mei Yu Sheng said: "It is bound to be difficult to write. If there are endless opinions at present, it would be best at that time." (See Poem on June 1st) These two sentences just illustrate the artistic features of this poem. One or three sentences describe the scenery and present the scenery of the deep palace autumn night to the readers very realistically. The word "cold", as an adjective used in verbs, is full of atmosphere. The metaphor of "cool as water" has not only color, but also temperature. Two or four sentences about ladies-in-waiting are implicit and intriguing. Although there is not a lyric in the poem, the complex feelings of the ladies-in-waiting intertwined with sorrow and expectation are beyond words, which reflects the tragic fate of women in feudal times from one side.
This poem is ingenious in conception, concise and fluent in language, graceful in emotion and strong in artistic appeal, which can quite represent Du Mu's artistic achievements. From the point of view of form and structure, the whole poem combines the description of objects and scenery with narrative lyricism, showing a smart posture and being quite touching. The former aims to create an atmosphere for the latter, and the latter aims to standardize the meaning of the former, and the two are integrated.