Grass has run wild now by the Bridge of Red-Birds;
And swallows' wings, at sunset, in Blacktail Row
Where once they visited great homes,
Dip among doorways of the poor.
Original Poem:
「乌衣巷」
刘禹锡
朱雀桥边野草花， 乌衣巷口夕阳斜。
旧时王谢堂前燕， 飞入寻常百姓家。
Interpretation:
“Blacktail Row” is one of Liu Yuxi’s most memorable pieces of nostalgia for ancient times.
The first stanza uses the Vermilion Bird Bridge to summarize the setting of Wuyi Lane, which is geographically realistic, creates an aesthetic sense of counterpoint, and evokes historical associations. What is striking in the sentence is the clumps of weeds and wildflowers by the bridge. The fact that the grass is long and the flowers are blooming suggests that it was spring. In addition, these weeds and wildflowers are growing on the banks of the Vermilion Bird Bridge, which has always been bustling with activity, and the poet highlights the “wildflowers” in order to show that the Vermilion Bird Bridge, which used to be a bridge with a lot of traffic and horses, is now deserted and cold.
Wuyi Lane is not only reflected in the background of the ancient bridge of defeat and desolation, but also presented in the oblique sunshine. The words “the setting sun is slanting” emphasize the bleak scene of the waning sun. In its heyday, the Wuyi Alley entrance was bustling with traffic and people coming and going. But now, the author uses a slanting sunlight to make Wuyi Alley completely shrouded in a lonesome and dismal atmosphere.
Next, the poet continues to use the scenery to depict the scene, and he unexpectedly and suddenly turns his brush to the swallows nesting in the sky above Wuyi Alley, so that people can recognize the direction of the swallows’ flight, which is now inhabited by ordinary people’s homes. In order to make the readers understand the poet’s intention, the author specially points out that these swallows flying into the people’s houses used to be the old swallows perched on top of the eaves and purlins of the tall halls of Wang Xie Quanmen.
Describing the big scenery, starting from the smallest detail. These images are designed as if they are easy to come by, but in fact, they are the result of the author’s ingenuity and rich imagination. The author captures the characteristics of the old nests of the swallows as migratory birds, hinting at the prosperity of Wuyi Lane in the past, and highlighting the contrast between the present and the past. Although this poem has an unusual scene and a simple language, the conception is very deep and delicate, with a kind of implicit beauty, which is intriguing.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Liu Yuxi(刘禹锡), 772 – 842 AD, was a native of Hebei. He was a progressive statesman and thinker in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, and a poet with unique achievements in this period. In his compositions, there is no lack of poems reflecting current affairs and the plight of the people.
