In winter, the prosperity is shaken, the life is depressed, the mountains and rivers are lonely, and the language is pale.
Sit quietly in front of the window, watch the snow fall on the earth, through the garden to get the trees; listen to the wind blowing leaves, the snow knocking on the cold bamboo, shallow time, amazing flowing years.
On a winter night more than 1,000 years ago, Bai Juyi wrote a "snow" poem, which has no high-level words, but has become a classic that is difficult to surpass.
"Night Snow"
The pillow was cold, and the window was clear again.
At night, I know that the snow is heavy, and I hear the sound of bamboo folding.
The poem was written in 816 AD, during the period when Bai Juyi was degraded to Jiangzhou.
Through touch, vision, hearing, etc., the poem depicts a natural and tranquil picture of night snow, which has been widely circulated for thousands of years.
"I'm already cold", the first sentence of the poem begins with the poet's subjective feelings.
"Pillow", the combined name for the quilt and the pillow, indicates that the poet was lying down at this time, taking care of the "night" in the title.
The word "surprise" not only vividly depicts the poet's surprised expression, but also writes out the characteristics of the snow falling silently.
The word "cold" seems ordinary, in fact, it is very subtle, in general, when the snow first falls, the temperature does not decrease immediately, but with the increase of snow, the time is longer, and gradually decreases.
This is a gradual process, so that the poet will not be aware at first, and when he feels cold, it means that the snow is already very large and has been raining for a long time.
The short five words at the beginning not only point out the changes in time and weather, but also express the subjective feelings of the poet, and also pave the way for the later writing of "snow weight", which shows that the poet's pen strength is extraordinary.
Then the second sentence, "See the window again", turns to visual description.
It should have been pitch black at night, but the poet saw that looking out the window was bright.
Why? It turned out to be snow reflective, bringing brightness.
Regarding the "reflection of snow", many poets have mentioned this, such as the Southern Song Dynasty You Yuan's "Sleeping does not know snow, but the window is bright", the Qing Dynasty Yuan Ming's "Blowing lights and windows are brighter, the moon shines a day of snow", all of which are written about the brightness of the snow night.
The most commendable is the two imaginary words of "has" and "fu", and the Ming Dynasty poet Li Dongyang once said that "it is easy to use real characters, but it is difficult to use virtual words." Sheng Tang people make good use of imaginary characters, open responses, melodious songs, all of which lie in this."
The imaginary word is used well, it can be folded thousands of times, and the bones are well-informed, and there is a magic of one breath, which is the case here in Bai Juyi.
The two seemingly meaningless words, but in the sentence structure and the poet's feelings, they have played a role in carrying on the upper and lower levels, and cannot be ignored.
The first two sentences of "Pillow Cold" and "Window Bright" are all side descriptions of the greatness of snow, and the third sentence that follows, "The night knows the snow is heavy", is a positive description.
We all know that the absolute sentence and the rhythm poem pay attention to the "beginning and turning", in general, the third sentence is the most critical, like a bridge, and like an intersection, before and after communication, up and down echo.
Yuanren Yang Zai once said in the "Number of Poets", "To the like turn of the change, the work is all in the third sentence, if the transformation is good here, then the fourth sentence is like a boat that goes down the river."
The third sentence of Bai Juyi's poem corresponds to the title of "Night Snow", and then hooks up three sentences before and after, which shows that the poet is well versed in this way.
In particular, the word "heavy" can be regarded as the "poetic eye" of the whole poem, and the "cold" and "bright" in the previous text and the "folding bamboo sound" in the latter text are all derived from this word.
The last sentence, "When you hear the sound of bamboo folding", from the perspective of hearing, write the "weight" of the snow, and also set off the silence of the night.
As we said earlier, the snow falls silently, but the poet here has ingeniously intercepted the shot of "folding bamboo", turning silence into sound, and it is very graphic and immersive.
Many poets in later generations have used "folding bamboo" to show the greatness of snow, such as Sun Yingshi's "folding bamboo sounds and smells, want to see the snow deep ruler", and Yang Gongyuan's "Knowing that it is snow is suspected of not snow, overhearing the sound of folding bamboo in the former village", presumably evolved from Bai Juyi's poem.
In addition, this sentence also uses a moving and static writing, because the night is silent, so the sound of folding bamboo will be so obvious.
On the other hand, it also reflects that the poet can't sleep all night, and he will hear the sound of folding bamboo from time to time.
Judging from the whole poem, the poet did not deliberately seek work, nor did he do anything to carve, but just started from the five senses and feelings, laying out layer by layer, presenting a fresh and elegant, quiet and long-distance glass world.
Although it is only a short 20 words, none of the words are virtual, the pen and ink are rounded, and the realm is muddy, which has been popular for more than 1,000 years.
I wonder if you also like Bai Juyi's poem? Welcome to discuss.
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Author: Relief poems
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