The central idea of Tang-Wang Zhilu's Liangzhou Lyrics is that it depicts the special feeling of looking at the Yellow River from afar, and at the same time, it also shows the magnificent and desolate scenery of the border region, which is sad and desolate, and exudes an air of generosity, and the coldness of the border region is reflecting the sorrow of the conscripts who can't go back to their hometowns in the border guards, which is not subdued, but is strong and expansive.
Originally:
The Yellow River is far away from the white clouds, a lonely city with ten thousand feet of mountains.
The Qiang flute does not need to complain about the willow, the spring breeze does not pass the Jade Gate.
Vernacular interpretation:
Looking at the Yellow River, the Yellow River is gradually moving away, as if it is flowing in the middle of the dazzling white clouds, and in the upper reaches of the Yellow River among the ten thousand-refuge mountains, a lonely city, the Yumen Pass, towers there, appearing to be lonely and cold. Why use the Qiang flute to play the mournful willow song to complain about the delay in spring, the original Yumen Pass area spring wind is not blowing ah!
Expanded InformationAppreciation:
When the poet first arrived in Liangzhou, he was faced with the vast scenery of the Yellow River and the border towns, and listened to the song of "Folding the Willow," which inspired him to write this poem that expresses the feelings of soldiers guarding the frontier and thinking about their hometowns.
The first two lines of the poem depict the vastness of the northwest borderlands. The first line captures the special feeling of looking at the Yellow River from below and from near and far, depicting the moving picture of "the Yellow River is far above the white clouds": the surging Yellow River looks like a ribbon winding its way up to the clouds.
Writing is really a leap of faith, the weather is open. The poet's other sentence "the Yellow River flows into the sea", its observation angle is the opposite of this, is from top to bottom of the eye; and Li Bai's "the Yellow River water from the sky", although also written to watch the upper reaches of the river, but the movement of the line of sight is from far and near, and this sentence is different.
"The Yellow River flows into the sea" and "the water of the Yellow River comes from the sky", both of which emphasize the grandeur of the Yellow River as it cascades down the river, showing the dynamic beauty. On the other hand, "The Yellow River is far away from the white clouds", which is in the opposite direction of the river's flow, is intended to emphasize its far-reaching and long-flowing leisure and far-reaching gesture, and expresses a kind of static beauty. At the same time, it shows the broad and magnificent scenery of the borderland, which is worthy of being a strange sentence in the ancient times.
The second line, "A lonely city with ten thousand feet of mountains," shows a lonely city on the Seychelles, which is one of the main images of the poem, and belongs to the main part of the "scroll". "The Yellow River is far away from the white clouds" is its distant background, and "ten thousand Ren Mountains" is its close background. Against the contrast of the distant rivers and high mountains, the city is seen to be in a dangerous and isolated position.
"A piece of" is an idiomatic expression in Tang poetry, often used in conjunction with "lonely" (such as "a piece of a lonely sail", "a piece of lonely clouds", etc.). ", etc.), here is equivalent to "a", and in the word more than one layer of "thin" meaning. Such a lonely city in the north of the desert is of course not a settlement, but a fortress on the border of the Hundred Days' Journey, and at the same time implies to the reader that there is a recruiter in the poem. As a classical poetic phrase, "lonely city" has a specific meaning.
It is often associated with the sadness of the departed, such as "the sun is setting on the lonely city of Kui Fu, and every time I look at the capital according to the Big Dipper" (Du Fu's "Autumn Prosperity"), "I know that the Han ambassador is outside the Xiaoguan Pass, and I am sad to see the sun setting on the lonely city" (Wang Wei's "Sending Wei to the Critics"), etc. The second line of "lonely city" has the meaning of "the city of the departed". In the second sentence, the imagery of a lonely city is introduced first, preparing the way for the next two sentences to further portray the psychology of the soldier.
"The Qiang flute has no need to complain about the willow", in such a bleak environment, suddenly heard the sound of the Qiang flute, playing the tune of "folding the willow", which can not help but evoke the homesickness of the soldiers on the border.
Because "willow" and "stay" harmonize, so the ancients often folded the willow to give each other a gift to express their remembrance of the time of parting. In the Northern Dynasty, there is a song called "Folding Willow Branches" in the "Drumhorn Blowing Songs", which reads: "I don't catch the whip on the horse, but I bend the willow branches instead. Playing the flute on the seat, I am sad to kill the travelers."
The song mentions that pedestrians break willow branches when they are saying goodbye. This kind of willow folding is especially prevalent in the Tang Dynasty. Soldiers listening to the mournful tune, the heart is very melancholy, the poet also do not know how to comfort the soldiers on the border, can only say, Qiang flute why always play that mournful "folding willow" song? The spring breeze would not have been able to blow through the Jade Gate Pass.
Since there is no spring breeze where is the willow to fold? This sentence contains a resentment, but also contains a hopeless tone, although nostalgia is unbearable, but the responsibility of guarding the border is more important ah.
The phrase "why complain" seems to be a relief, but it also expresses that complaint in a twisted way, making the whole poem more profound. The spring wind here also alludes to the emperor, because the emperor's care could not reach here, so the soldiers outside the Yumen Pass are in such a lonely and bad situation. The poet euphemistically expresses his complaint that the emperor did not care about the life and death of the soldiers guarding the Yumen Pass and could not sympathize with the soldiers on the border.
This is a seven-character stanza with a bleak and mournful tone. Although it is full of complaints, it is not negative and decadent, and shows the broad and open-mindedness of the people in the Tang Dynasty. The use of contrasting techniques in the poem makes the poetic expression more tense. The language is euphemistic and precise, and the expression of thoughts and feelings is appropriate.
Writing Background:
According to the epitaph of Wang Zhilu, it is known that Wang Zhilu resigned from his official post in the 14th year of Emperor Xuanzong's reign in Tang Dynasty (726) and lived a free life for 15 years.