Reminiscing about Jiangnan
Tang Dynasty - Bai Juyi
Jiangnan is good,
I am familiar with the scenery.
When the sun rises, the flowers on the river are as red as fire.
When spring comes, the river is as green as blue.
I can’t forget Jiangnan.
Remembering Jiangnan,
The most memorable thing is Hangzhou.
Looking for osmanthus seeds in the middle of the moon in the mountain temple,
Looking at the tide from the pillow in the county pavilion.
When will we visit again?
Recalling Jiangnan,
Secondly recalling Wu Palace.
A cup of Wu wine with spring bamboo leaves,
Wu Wa dances with hibiscus and gets drunk.
We will meet again sooner or later.
Modern Translation of Ancient Poems
Jiangnan is a good place, and I am familiar with the scenery there. At sunrise, the red flowers on the riverside are redder than fire. In spring, the green water of the river seems to be dyed with blue grass. How can people not miss the beautiful Jiangnan all the time?
Appreciation of famous quotes - "When the sun rises, the flowers on the river are as red as fire, and when spring comes, the river is as green as blue."
This is a colorful painting that depicts the beauty of Jiangnan. Although Bai Juyi was born in the north, after serving as the governor of Hangzhou and the governor of Suzhou, the beautiful scenery of Su and Hangzhou left him with good memories. After returning to the north, he wrote many works in memory of his old travels, such as "Recalling Jiangnan". It is one of the representative works. This poem opens with the lament that "Jiangnan is good". Jiangnan is good. What is good about it is of course difficult to describe in one sentence. The length of a poem is too small to allow for detailed description. Bai Juyi chose river flowers and spring water here to set off the sunrise. And the background of spring looks very bright and beautiful, vividly depicting the wonderful scene of spring in the south of the Yangtze River. The two sentences "Sunrise" are neatly contrasted and the colors are bright. It is a famous couplet that is widely recited by future generations. In the author's works, river flowers contrast with fire, and the redness of the flowers is admirable; when describing the river, green and blue are used simultaneously, and the deep green of the water seems to be before your eyes. In just two sentences and fourteen words, the beautiful spring sceneries in the south of the Yangtze River are fully described. How could such a beautiful scenery not make the author dream about it? Therefore, the last sentence "can we not remember Jiangnan" flows out naturally, and the author's nostalgia for Jiangnan and his praise for Jiangnan also overflow without words.
Since "I can't forget Jiangnan", what was it about Hangzhou, the place where Bai Juyi stayed the longest, that gave him the deepest feeling? Ancient books record: "There are many osmanthus trees in Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. The monk said: 'This is the middle of the month.' To this day, when I look at the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the osmanthus often falls, and the monks also try to find it." Since the monks can find it, it seems that Bai Juyi When I was the governor of Hangzhou, I was very interested in picking up a few of them. I also went to Lingyin Temple many times to look for the osmanthus seeds in the middle of the moon, just to enjoy the osmanthus flowers on the moonlit night of Sanqiu. Bai Juyi is a poet, and naturally he has a romantic temperament. On a moonlit night in August when the sweet-scented osmanthus is fragrant, he wanders under the moonlight and lingers among the osmanthus bushes. Sometimes he looks up at the moon, and sometimes he looks down to see if there are any osmanthus seeds flying from the moon and falling into the shadow of the osmanthus flowers. middle. What a beautiful and moving picture this is. A search for words, and the emotion and scene are combined, the meaning and the scene are met, poetic and picturesque, fascinating.
Perhaps, the osmanthus in the moon is just a legend, then the wonder of Qiantang Tide does exist. You may not be able to find Guizi if you look for it, but the tide is a truly visible and deeply felt landscape. The Qiantang River flows from the southeast to the northeast of Hangzhou and enters the sea at Haimen. The Qiantang tide pours in from Haimen every day and night, which is extremely spectacular. The Qiantang tide is the strongest on the three days after the Mid-Autumn Festival every year, and the tide can be several feet high. Because of this, Bai Juyi wrote that he could see the tide with curling clouds and snow while lying in the pavilion of his county government office. abundant. The first sentence is about running to the temple to find the beautiful legend, and the second sentence is about lying on the bed leisurely and watching the surging tide of Qiantang, with every movement and silence. From this, we can get a glimpse of the various psychological activities contained in the author's heart, and maybe we can feel the atmosphere of Hangzhou. memorable.
The third poem is about Suzhou. If you drink a cup of Wu wine with spring bamboo leaves, some people may say that green bamboo leaves are not Wu wine. What's going on? Firstly, the bamboo leaves are meant to be paired with the hibiscus in the next sentence. Secondly, "spring" is an adjective here. The so-called spring bamboo leaves do not necessarily refer to bamboo leaf green wine, but to wine that can bring spring. Bai Juyi said in another poem that "the bamboo leaves on the head of the urn ripen in spring". In the mid-Tang Dynasty when Bai Juyi lived, there were many famous wines named after the word spring, such as "Fu Shuichun" and "Ruoxia Chun". Most literati love wine, and Bai Juyi is probably no exception. Drinking Wu wine and watching the "Double Dance of Wu and Wa" is like the dance of a drunken hibiscus. The "baby" refers to a beautiful woman, Xi Shi was called the "baby", and the house built for her by King Wu Fu Chai was called the "Guanwa Palace".
Perhaps Bai Juyi wrote this out of association with Xi Shi, a peerless beauty. More than ten years later, when he was in Luoyang, he recalled drinking and watching dancing, and couldn't help but sigh: "Will we meet again sooner or later?" Sooner or later, it was a colloquial expression at that time, meaning when.
Three poems, starting from the present, recalling the past, and finally returning to today, from Luoyang to Suzhou and Hangzhou, from today to the past more than ten years ago, present, past, south, north, time , the space has a huge span. Bai Juyi was in Luoyang, longing for the south of the Yangtze River, recalling the present and the past, and recalling the most unforgettable past events in the south of the Yangtze River with infinite affection, which gave him a certain amount of spiritual satisfaction. When we read this poem today, we can also get some kind of spiritual satisfaction because of Bai Juyi's excellent description. I wonder if Bai Juyi wrote it for his own memories at that time, or left it for future generations to appreciate. What do you think?