While the year sinks westward, I hear a cicada
Bid me to be resolute here in my cell,
Yet it needed the song of those black wings
To break a white-haired prisoner's heart....
His flight is heavy through the fog,
His pure voice drowns in the windy world.
Who knows if he be singing still? - -
Who listens any more to me?
Original Poem:
「在狱咏蝉」
骆宾王
西陆蝉声唱， 南冠客思侵。
不堪玄鬓影， 来对白头吟。
露重飞难进， 风多响易沉。
无人信高洁， 谁为表予心。
Interpretation:
This poem was written in 678 AD when the poet was falsely imprisoned for corruption. In the poem, the poet is using objects to express his feelings, comparing with the rising, expressing the indignation of being wronged and aggrieved in a specific environment and the nobility of his character.
The first two lines point out that autumn cicadas sing loudly, calling for no peace. With the technique of rising, the sound of cicadas lead to the guest thought. The poet deeply misses his home in prison.
The third and fourth lines are both writing cicadas are also writing themselves, the cicadas and their own write together, expressing the hero useless feelings of sorrow. The poet dares not look at the cicada’s sideburns, which can show its voice and sing to its heart’s content; and the poet is also in his youthful years, but he is experiencing all kinds of political torment, accomplishing nothing, and is still imprisoned, so what can he use to meet the old age of his life?
The fifth and sixth lines, the center of the poem is mainly aria cicadas, but also a metaphor. The dew is heavy and the cicada’s wings are wet, making it difficult to fly forward. It is a metaphor for one’s own difficult situation, political disillusionment, and inability to redress one’s grievances. When the wind is loud, the cicadas’ voices seem to be low. Metaphorically speaking, it is difficult to defend oneself even if one’s mouth is full of words, and one’s speech has been greatly suppressed.
The last two lines of the poet’s defiantly full of loyalty and indignation, the poet’s noble qualities are not understood by the world, but was falsely imprisoned. The poet continues to use the cicadas as a metaphor for himself. The cicada lives high in the tree and eats the wind and drinks the dew, so who believes that it doesn’t eat earthly food? Only the cicadas and the poet can understand each other. The cicadas sing for the poet, and the poet writes this poem for the cicadas.
The poet wrote this poem for the sake of the cicadas. This poem arouses associations because of the cicadas. It also uses the cicadas as a metaphor for itself, from the cicadas to the poet, and from the poet to the cicadas, which is natural and true, and it realizes the realm of the unity of things and me very well.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Luo Binwang (骆宾王), circa 640 – 684 A.D., was a native of Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, who was able to write poetry at the age of seven. He was one of the “Four Heroes of the Early Tang Dynasty”, together with Wang Bo and other poets and writers. He was one of the “Four Heroes of the Early Tang Dynasty”. His poems were characterized by seven lines of poetry, with many words of grief and anger.
