Original text:
Distant Altair
Han Dynasty: Anonymous
Distant Altair, Jiao Jiao Hehan girl.
Skillful hands, make a loom.
There is no chapter all day, and tears are pouring down.
How clear and shallow the river is!
Between water and water, there are no words.
translate
Distant and bright Altair, bright and distant Vega.
The weaver girl is waving her long white hands, and the loom keeps ringing.
Because of lovesickness, she couldn't weave any patterns all day, and tears scattered all over the floor like rain.
They are not far from each other only by the clear and shallow Milky Way.
Across the clear and shallow banks of the Milky Way, they stared at each other silently.
Make an appreciative comment
Through the myth that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl can't meet each other across the Milky Way, this poem expresses the painful and sad feelings caused by the frustration of love. This poem describes a couple in the sky, Petunia and Weaver Girl, but the perspective is on the ground, which is to observe their parting pain from the perspective of a third party. The first two sentences put pen to paper from two places, saying that Niu Jiao is "far" and the weaver girl is called "bright". Titiao and Jiao Jiao have different views on each other, so we can't be persistent. The morning glory is also bright, and the weaver girl is far away. They are all so far away and so bright. However, it is easy to think of a wanderer far away from home with a petunia belonging to a distant relative, and it is also easy to think of the beauty of a woman with a weaver girl belonging to a distant relative. In this case, it seems that they can no longer be interchanged. If it is intertextual, it will be changed to "Morning Glory, Far River Girl", and the interest will be reduced by half. The subtlety of poetic language can be seen here. The reason why the Weaver Girl is called "Hehan Girl" is to make up three syllables and avoid using "Weaver Girl" in three words. The former sentence uses "Altair" and the latter sentence uses "Vega", which is neither rhyming nor monotonous. Girl in the River is much more vivid. "Hehan Woman" refers to a woman on the edge of the Milky Way, which is more reminiscent of a real woman and ignores that she is a star. I don't know if the author took such pains when writing poems. Anyway, different writing methods have different artistic effects. In a word, the arrangement of the ten words "Altair, Jiao Jiao Hehan Girl" can be said to be the most ingenious arrangement and the most muddy effect.