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Source: Li Bai's Sitting Alone in Jingting Mountain in Tang Dynasty
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Original text:
The birds flew without a trace, leaving the lonely clouds free and unfettered.
You look at me, I look at you, and there are only my eyes and Jingting Mountain's eyes.
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Translation:
Birds in the mountains flew away one by one, and the last white cloud in the sky floated away leisurely.
Jingtingshan and I looked at each other, and no one could get enough of it. It seems that only Jingting Mountain understands me.
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Precautions:
Jingting Mountain: In the north of Xuancheng City, Anhui Province.
Everyone: No more.
Lonely Cloud: Tao Yuanming's Poem for Helping the Poor contains the phrase "Lonely Cloud alone".
Go for leisure alone: go alone, go alone.
Leisure: It describes traveling everywhere and being carefree. Lonely clouds are floating around.
Never tire of seeing two things: the poet and Jingting Mountain.
Tired: satisfied.
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Creative background:
Zhan E's "Li Bai Shi Nian" was written in the 12th year of Tianbao (AD 753). It is considered to be a work of Deng Jingting's looking south and recalling the past, as a gift to Dou Zhushu. Some people also put forward different views, thinking that the writing year of this poem is not indicated in Li Bai's manuscript, and that this poem was written in Tianbao 12 years is only the conclusion drawn by later generations. It is more likely that this poem was written in Tang Suzong in the second year of last Yuan (76 1).
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Appreciate:
This poem is a masterpiece of the poet to express his spiritual world. On the surface, this poem describes a person's interest in traveling in Jingting Mountain, but its deep meaning is the poet's loneliness all his life. With his peculiar imagination and ingenious conception, the poet gave life to the landscape and personified Jingting Mountain, which was very vivid. The author writes about his loneliness and his lack of talent, but he is more determined and seeks comfort and sustenance in nature.
"Birds fly high, and lonely clouds go to leisure alone." The first two sentences of this five-line poem say that birds fly high without a shadow, and lonely clouds go for fun alone.
The first two sentences seem to describe the scene in front of us, but in fact they write all the loneliness: several birds in the sky fly away until they disappear; There is still a white cloud in the vast sky, but I don't want to stay and drift away slowly, as if everything in the world is rejecting poets. The words "tired" and "idle" bring readers into a state of peace: it seems that after eliminating the noise of a mountain bird, it feels particularly quiet; After the thick rolling clouds disappeared, I felt particularly quiet. Therefore, these two sentences are "dynamic" and "static", and "dynamic" is used to set off "static", which is a foil to the poet's spiritual loneliness. This vivid writing can give readers association, and imply that the poet has been visiting Jingting Mountain for a long time, and outline the image of him sitting alone fascinated, paving the way for the next couplet.
The images of these two sentences are juxtaposed in the form of "the stars arch the moon". The central word "bird" in the previous sentence is the central image, and the word "fly" is added to form a compound image, which strengthens the dynamic expression meaning. Birds can remind readers of the quiet and peaceful scene in the mountains. Birds are singing euphemistically in the empty mountains, which makes them interesting. At present, birds fly high and get farther and farther away from people. The word "Gao" has played a role in expanding space. Looking up, in the empty blue sky, birds are flying away until they are out of sight. The word "gold" enhances the expressive force of this sentence and shows Li Bai's melancholy at this time. The last sentence "cloud" is the central word, which is compounded with "go", and the silent cloud is drifting away. And clouds are not all over the sky, just "solitary clouds" without companions, just drifting away leisurely and slowly. The poet used "leisure" to write the state of the solitary cloud, highlighting the process of leaving, so that readers can feel the poet's inner pain and helplessness when they taste the state of the solitary cloud leaving.
Three or four sentences, "Never tire of seeing it, only Jingting Mountain", personify Jingting Mountain in a romantic way. Although the bird flew away, the poet didn't go back, and he didn't want to go back. He stared at the quiet and beautiful Jingting Mountain for a long time and felt that Jingting Mountain seemed to be looking at himself affectionately. There is no need to say anything between them, and they have reached emotional communication. "Never tire of looking at each other" expresses the deep feelings between the poet and Jingting Mountain. "Xiang" and "Liang" are synonymous, which closely connects the poet with Jingting Mountain and shows strong feelings. At the same time, Looking at each other also points out that at this moment, only the lonely scene of "mountain" and "me" is as important as the word "two", and the interdependence between mountains and people arises spontaneously. The word "only" in the conclusion is also tempered, which highlights the poet's love for Jingting Mountain. "It's enough to have a bosom friend in life", and the bird flying away is nothing to the poet. The artistic conception created by these two poems is still "quiet". On the surface, it is written that the poet looks at Jingting Mountain with deep affection. In fact, the more poets write about the "sentimentality" of mountains, the more they show people's "ruthlessness"; And his lonely and desolate situation is revealed in this quiet scene.
The moving images of "birds" and "lonely clouds" are opposite to the static images of "Jingting Mountain". There is only quantitative change in the dimensions of time and space, but qualitative change in the psychological dimension: literati with ideals and talents who are suppressed by politics are often particularly sensitive to "passing away" and "dissipation", with short personnel and eternal universe. The poet introduced the eternal mountain as his confidant, probably because he had no choice but to do it after Chang 'an was invisible. Even if Chang 'an attracts him, he doesn't know whether he will follow the "birds flying high".
In the poet's pen, Jingting Mountain has no beautiful mountains, no beautiful streams and no beautiful bridges. It is not that there is nothing to write about Jingting Mountain, because Jingting Mountain "faces Wanxi in the east and the city in the south, sailing in the vast market with picturesque scenery". From the perspective of poetry, it is impossible to know the position of the poet relative to the mountain, perhaps at the top of the mountain or in the open area, but these are not important. The purpose of writing this poem is not to praise the scenery, but to express feelings through the scenery and the quiet scenery here. The poet found solace in the anthropomorphic Jingting Mountain and seemed to feel less lonely. However, it is here that the poet's inner loneliness is more prominent. The deep loneliness in the world and the tragic atmosphere of the poet's life are full of the whole poem. The whole poem seems to be full of scenery, but it has no emotion. But because the scenery is composed of emotion, every sentence is emotion, just like Wang Fuzhi said, "There is a scene in love, and there is love in the scene."
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About the author:
Li Bai (70 1-762), a great romantic poet in the Tang Dynasty, was called "Poet Fairy" by later generations and "Du Li" with Du Fu. In order to distinguish himself from two other poets, Li Shangyin and Du Mu, that is, "Little Du Li", Du Fu and Li Bai were also called together. According to the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, Li Bai is the ninth grandson of Gui Li, the king of Liang, and he is a descendant of all kings. He is cheerful and generous, loves to drink and write poems, and likes to make friends. Li Bai was deeply influenced by Huang Lao's idea of sorting out villages, such as Li Taibai Collection handed down from generation to generation. Most of his poems were written when he was drunk. His representative works include Looking at Lushan Waterfall, it is hard to go, Difficult Road to Shu, Entering Wine, Fu Zhi, First Sending to Baidicheng, etc.