Translation

At the time of the yellow plums, every house is enveloped in rain, and by the ponds full of green grass, there comes a burst of frogs' voices.

Time has passed midnight, has been invited guests have not yet come, I was bored gently knocking chess, shocked off the wick when lighting oil lamps knotted bumps.

The background of the creation of the night of the yellow plum season, drizzle misty down, the countryside of the pond came bursts of frogs. The poet asked a friend to come as a guest, but waited until midnight and did not come. He had to play chess alone, accompanied by an oil lamp. The words are close and distant, showing the author's loneliness without revealing his feelings. Appreciation

A date with someone and wait for a long time does not come, it is inevitable to be restless, this is probably everyone's experience, this into the poem, it is difficult to write a flavorful. However, Zhao Shixiu's poem, which describes this kind of situation, is written in a deep and subtle way, with a flavorful aftertaste.

"Yellow plum season rain, grass ponds everywhere frogs", the first two lines of the poem, depicting a picture of the summer rain in the south of the river. The rainy season, rainy, pond water, frogs, the countryside scene is so fresh and quiet, harmonious and wonderful. However, "all the words of the scene are words of love", the poet here is not to write the scene for the scene, but in the scene of the complexity of his thoughts and feelings of the solo period guest. "Rain in every house" not only depicts the omnipresence of summer rain and the rapid intensity, showing the freshness and quietness of the countryside, but also hints at the objective reasons why the guests could not go to the appointment as scheduled, revealing the poet's helplessness to the rainy weather of the continuous rain. "Frogs everywhere" is written both in the pond frogs, but also the use of sound to set off the quiet writing style, highlighting the rainy season in the countryside at night in a quiet and harmonious atmosphere, but also reflects the poet's lonesome and lonely and irritable state of mind. These two lines of the poem from the visual and auditory aspects, image and real performance in the dead of night, the poet alone expect guests but the guests never appeared when the unique psychological feelings. The continuous rain all over the countryside and the incessant frogs' drums were originally very harmonious and wonderful, but it was annoying that the continuous rain blocked the friend's appointment, and the frogs' drums disturbed the poet's state of mind. At this moment, the poet how to hope that the friend rain or shine, as expected, and he together with the chess to eliminate sorrow.

"There is an appointment not to come halfway through the night", this line only points out the title of the poem, but also makes the above two lines of the scenery, the sound of the portrayal of a landing. There was an appointment with the guest, but after midnight no one came, undoubtedly because of the incessant night rain prevented the friend from coming to fulfill the appointment. Deep night sleeplessness, see the poet's expectation of a long time, the hope of the earnest, so far, it seems that the guest will not come to the situation has been written, but the last sentence of a small pad, turn the poem greatly color.

"Idle knocking chess falling lamps", this is only a small dynamic of the poet, but in this dynamic, the poet's anxieties and expectations of the mood of the meticulous delineation. Because I am alone, I can't play chess, so I say "Idle knocking chess pieces", chess pieces are not knocked, but used to knock, which reflects the bitterness of loneliness; "Idle" indicates boredom, and behind the word "Idle", there is a hidden meaning of "Idle". The word "idle" indicates boredom, and behind the word "idle", the poet's disappointment and agitation are implied.

When people are lonely and anxious, they tend to subconsciously make a kind of monotonous mechanical movements, as if they intend to make a little noise to break the silence and dilute the superiority of anxiety, and the poet's "idle knocking of the chess pieces" here is just such an action. The "falling lamp" is of course a result of knocking on the chessboard, but it also euphemistically expresses the situation that the wick has been burning for a long time and the period of the guests is long, and the image of the poet's frustration and disillusionment also jumps out on the paper. The detail of knocking on the chessboard contains many layers of meanings, and there is the flavor of the language close to the feelings of remoteness, which is not revealed. This shows the importance of capturing typical details in artistic creation.

Another obvious feature of this poem is the use of contrasting techniques. The last two lines are written inside the house of a lamp like beans, sitting withered and knocking chess, silence and boredom, just with the previous text constitutes a sharp contrast, through this contrast, deeper expression of the poet's feelings of despondency and disappointment. From this, we can see that Zhao Shixiu and other "four spirit" poets, although the face of light and fresh, in fact, quite elaborate compilation of efforts. "Yellow plum", "rain", "pond", "frogs", wrote the summer night scene of the rainy season in Jiangnan: The sound of rain is constant and the sound of frogs. Read to make people as if they were there, as if the rain is floating around, the frogs are ringing around. This seems to show a very "lively" environment, in fact, the poet wants to contrast its "silence". The last two lines point out the characters and things. The master waited patiently and a little anxiously, with nothing to do, "idly knocking" chess, quietly watching the flickering lanterns. The third line, "I have an appointment not to come halfway through the night", uses "have an appointment" to point out that the poet had "an appointment" to visit, "halfway through the night" to illustrate the waiting time. "explains the waiting time is long, was looking forward to is about the guest's knocking, but heard only a burst of rain and frogs, compared to show the author's anxious mood. The fourth line "idle knocking chess" is a detail description, the poet asked the guest to wait for a long time, the wick is very long, the poet boredom, subconsciously black and white chess pieces on the chessboard gently knocking, and Duk Duk knocking the sound of chess and will be the lamps are shocked down. This gesture seems to be idle, but in fact reflects the poet's inner anxiety. Through the rendering of the environment of the poet's thoughts and the detailed action of "knocking on the chessboard", the poem not only writes the scene of the poet waiting for the guest to visit on a rainy night, but also writes a kind of disappointment that the guest has not yet arrived, which can be described as a combination of both form and spirit. The whole poem has a strong flavor of life and is free from the habit of carving, so it is clear and readable. Appreciation and Analysis The first line, "It rains in every house at the time of the yellow plum," describes the environment at that time. The yellow plum season is a few days after the beginning of summer, when the plums turn from green to yellow, and it rains a lot in Jiangnan, commonly known as the yellow plum day. At that time, the rain is so fine and continuous that it is called "the flying flowers are as light as a dream, and the rain is as fine as sorrow". For the visual, is a low comfort. As for the rain knocking on the scales of a thousand petals of the tile, from far and near, gently heavy gently, sandwiched between a strand of thin stream along the tile grooves and eaves of the gurgling leaks, a variety of percussive sound and sliding tone densely woven into a network, as if "who's a thousand fingers in the *** earwheel", the mood is unusually quiet and serene. "Grass pond everywhere frogs" this, the poet's attention from the fading rain, naturally turned to the near and far, one after another piece of frogs, it is the sound of frogs everywhere, set off the surrounding quiet, imagine, if not the heart as still water, outside the world, but anxious and irritable, how to know the micro-micro-micro! "How can we know the faint sound of "insects" tonight? Then look at the third sentence, "I have an appointment not to come past midnight". I guess this is probably the reason why the book reaches the conclusion of "anxious". If you were me and your friend didn't come after midnight, I would be anxious. But this is Zhao Shixiu, one of the "Four Spirits of Yongjia", known as "Ghost Talent" Zhao Shixiu. Zhao Shixiu, word Zizhi, also known as Lingzhi, Guangzong Shaoxi first year of the bachelor's degree, served as Shangyuan County, Peony County magistrate. Although he was an official, he was disillusioned and depressed, and often traveled with monks and Taoists between the mountains and the water, yearning for a quiet and indifferent life, and even wanted to "return to his homeland" (Nine Guests and a Feathered Clothes in a Boat, Rhymes with Zun Zi, and Sent to Zhu Guizhong). After his death, Dai Fugu, a great scholar of the Jianghu school, wrote "Crying for Zhao Zizhi", saying that he was "a character of the Eastern Jin Dynasty". He would not have been so anxious if he did not come for his appointment in the middle of the night, would he? In the last line of the poem, "Idlely knocking on the chess pieces and dropping the lanterns", "Idlely knocking on the chess pieces and dropping the lanterns". "Idle knocking" of "idle", should be as if we occasionally with a small table, bored, suitable to see the desk pen and ink, and then took the hand over, casually, carelessly, letter pen to paint, as Lu You, "short paper slanting rows of idle as grass The interest of "short paper, slanting lines, idle as grass". Zhao Shixiu is also so sitting in front of the lamp, waiting for guests do not come, boredom, the right to see the game of chess, so pick up the hand, casually, carelessly, letter hand knocking away, why the feeling of anxiety? Zhao Shixiu (1170-1219) word Zizhi, No. Lingxiu, also known as Lingzhi, also known as Tianle. He was a native of Yongjia (present-day Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province). He was a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Zhao Shixiu