Today has hurt my heart even more.
The autumn wildgeese have a long wind for escort
As I face them from this villa, drinking my wine.
The bones of great writers are your brushes, in the School of Heaven,
And I am a Lesser Hsieh growing up by your side.
We both are exalted to distant thought,
Aspiring to the sky and the bright moon.
But since water still flows, though we cut it with our swords,
And sorrows return, though we drown them with wine,
Since the world can in no way answer our craving,
I will loosen my hair tomorrow and take to a fishing-boat.
Original Poem:
「宣州谢朓楼饯别校书叔云」
李白
弃我去者昨日之日不可留；
乱我心者今日之日多烦忧。
长风万里送秋雁， 对此可以酣高楼。
蓬莱文章建安骨， 中间小谢又清发，
俱怀逸兴壮思飞， 欲上青天览明月。
抽刀断水水更流， 举杯销愁愁更愁。
人生在世不称意， 明朝散发弄扁舟。
Interpretation:
This poem is Li Bai's farewell poem on the Xie Wu building in Xuanzhou. Li Bai's poems are free-spirited and unrestrained, with strange imaginations, but he can use them to inspire his own, and they are completed in a single breath, with an uncluttered vein and an overriding spirit, and this poem is precisely a masterpiece that shows this characteristic of Li Bai the most.
The first two lines: Yesterday, which abandoned me, has long been irretrievable. Today, which has messed up my mind, is a source of infinite worry.
As a farewell to his friends, he climbed a high building in the fall, looked at the long wind and flying geese, looked down on the world, and felt a great deal of emotion, so he sang to the wine. Here, the poet's worry is not goodbye, but the lack of talent.
The third and fourth lines: the wind sends the geese back to the south, in the face of this scene, you can climb the high building to drink.
Suddenly made a turn: and to a few clear autumn sky, looking away from the magnificent scenery of the long winds blowing geese, can not help but stir up a sound drink on a high floor of the luxury of pleasure. These two lines in front of the reader to show a magnificent clear picture of thousands of miles of autumn sky, but also show the poet's bold and broad-minded. From the extreme bitterness suddenly turned to the realm of the bright and magnificent, as if the change is endless, incredible.
Sentences 5 and 6: Mr. Li Yun's writing is quite like the bones of Jian'an, and my poetic style is also as fresh and beautiful as Xie Wu.
Here Li Yun is praised for his robust style of writing, and then says that his own poems are like Xie Wu's, with a fresh and beautiful style. Li Bai greatly admires Xie Wu, and here he compares himself to Xiao Xie, revealing his confidence in his own talent.
Seventh, eight lines: we are full of pride and joy, leaping thoughts like to soar up to the high blue sky, to pick the bright moon.
Further rendering of the two sides of the mood, said each other are full of pride and joy, ambition, wine sound Xing Fa, is more floating to fly, want to ascend to the blue sky to take the bright moon. These two lines are full of pen and ink, as if the reality of all the darkness and filth have been swept away, all the worries of the heart have been thrown into the clouds.
Ninth and tenth lines: the water is more turbulent, but more intense, but more intense on the cup of sorrow.
The metaphor here is strange and original, but at the same time, it is also natural and apt and rich in the flavor of life. In front of the Xie Wu building, there is the year-round flowing Wanyi River, and it is very easy to create an association between the endless flowing water and the endless worries, so it is natural that this idea is triggered by the strong desire to dispel the worries. Although the inner bitterness can not be discharged, but “draw the knife to break the water” this detail vividly shows the poet trying to get rid of the spirit of bitterness requirements, which and indulge in bitterness and can not extricate themselves from the obvious difference.
The last two lines: life in the world can not be satisfactory, it would be better to wear hair, board a flat boat on the Yangtze River.
The contradiction between Li Bai's ideal of progress and the dark reality could not be solved under the historical conditions at that time, so he was always trapped in bitterness, and could only find a way out of bitterness by “boarding a flat boat with his hair disheveled”.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Li Bai (李白), 701 ~ 762 A.D., whose ancestral home was in Gansu, was preceded by Li Guang, a general of the Han Dynasty. Tang poetry is one of the brightest constellations in the history of Chinese literature, and one of the brightest stars is Li Bai.
