用英语讲好中国故事之——唐诗赏析

刘禹锡《秋词》

One of my best friends published the Chinese version of the poem on his WeChat Moment, which interested me most and I immediately translated it into English and published it in my WeChat Moment as a response for the sake of our friendship because the poem seemingly resonated the sentiment in our hearts, at least so for me.

After that, I thought about this poem carefully and I think I should write a short passage on the appreciation of this poem.

The first question or idea that came into my mind is why the composer of the poem thought that the fall days towered the spring mornings. In the long tradition of poetry in China, falls mean bleakness, so the first line of the poem is: 

Falls have brought lonely grief since the old days.

Fall is the imagery of bleakness in poetry, which, as an allusion in poetry, has been universally acknowledged. Fall wind and rain grieve men to death, as another famed poem line put. “Since old days” is not an exaggeration for generations of poets. Fall (秋)in Chinese means the crops ripen(禾穀孰也). The apple will fall and the leaves will float away and everything which has ripened will decay and the world will come into a state of being cold and desolate, nearly into the state of death. Men of sentimental disposition feel melancholy at the disappearance of hope and vitality, among whom poets are of the majority.

But the composer of this poem bearing the title Ode to Fall is quite a betrayer of the tradition. In the view of his point, fall days tower spring mornings. Why? The answer to this question lies in the poem itself. The clear sky in this poem symbolizes a state of political atmosphere where talents are employed and exercise positive and powerful influence over the practice of governmental administration, virtuous men are in proper posts and play a decisive role in morality education and learned scholars are adored so that men of letters can fulfill their social ambitions and their commissions for civilization.

And the crane, which pushes the clouds away while ascending to the azure sky, symbolizes the imagery of Confucius scholars who strictly follow Confucius belief that the task of popularizing the Idea of Benevolence is a great commission on a long road. Liu Yuxi belonged to them. And he aspired to achieve the goal like a crane flying high freely in the azure sky. The imagery of the crane can’t help reminding us of a scholar whose tale was recorded in the well-known book A New Account of the Tales in the World(《世说新语》). The scholar ascended his cart, holding the reins and aspired to create a world of the ideal society, refreshing the politics of the country.

From the analysis above, we can naturally draw a conclusion that Liu Yuxi, as one of Confucius scholars, kept his ambition and aspiration in mind all the time and when depreciated, he still admired the crane which could bravely achieve its ideal goal of flying high and he, even being relegated, could not forget his commission to do something for society and the country. This is why he became poetically passionate when watching a crane sweeping the clouds away in an azure sky like a scholar who could achieve his goal to refresh the political atmosphere of the country and benefit the people by doing so. 

This is the philosophy behind the poem and this is the key to and question why he would betray the tradition of the imagery of falls in the long history rather than follow it to express the grief of being relegated. 

He was as pessimistic as optimistic about his fate when he compared the crane to himself. So the poem is deciphered in a dualism way and can be comprehended. On the one hand, it eulogizes the fall days with much passion and optimism. On the other hand, the fact that he was being relegated suggests the deep pessimism that he was not as free as a crane to achieve his goal and fulfill his commission. So we can be safe to say that the poem is optimistic superficially yet pessimistic deeply. Only in this way can we find the sentiment of the poet lurked in the deep structure of the poem.