Give farewell to the two
Tang Du Mu
Peacefully curling up thirteen or more, cardamom tops in the beginning of February.
The spring breeze is ten miles from Yangzhou Road, and the pearl curtains are always rolled up.
Translation
Thirteen or fourteen year old girl's posture is curvy and graceful, her demeanor is light and beautiful, just like the cardamom flower that is budding and ready to bloom in February, and the tip of the cardamom flower is appearing at the beginning of the month.
The spring breeze of ten miles of Yangzhou Road is myrrhous, and the beauties in the pearl curtains and emerald curtains are no match for her.
"The graceful curls of the thirteen or so cardamom blossoms are at the beginning of February". The first two lines of this poem say that the beautiful posture and demeanor of the thirteen years of age, like a budding cardamom flower at the beginning of February.
The first sentence describes a bit: "graceful curls" is the appearance of a light and beautiful posture, "thirteen years" is the age of the woman. Seven words in neither a persona, nor dip a noun, but can give a person a complete, distinctive and vivid impression, so that people such as witnessing the beautiful silhouette. This is the only line in the poem that positively describes the woman's beauty. This sentence also avoids the truth, and its syntax is really ethereal and marvelous. The second line is no longer about the woman, but about the spring flowers, which is obviously the flower than the woman. "Cardamom" produced in the South, its flowers into a spike, young leaves rolled up, the head of the spike deep red, the leaves gradually unfold, the flowers gradually released, slightly lighter in color. Southern people pick its buds to be released, the beautiful name is "moss flowers", often used as a metaphor for virgins. And "early February" cardamom flowers is this "moss flowers", used to compare "more than thirteen" little songstress, is the image of beautiful and apt. And the flowers in the branch "tip", with the wind fluttering appearance, especially lovely. So "cardamom tips" and secretly mirror the "graceful curls" four words. Here the metaphor is not only new language, and very subtle; and like a handful, write people like flowers beautiful, flowers because of people colorful, say it is novel and unique is not excessive. All the "like a flower like jade", "the kingdom of the city" and other metaphorical descriptions, in front of such a verse will be eclipsed.
"The spring breeze is ten miles away from Yangzhou, and the pearl curtains are not as good as the curtains rolled up." The last two lines of the poem say that after looking at the youthful beauties along the ten-mile-long street of Yangzhou City, rolling up the beaded curtains to sell their beauty is not as good as her.
At that time, the poet was about to leave Yangzhou, and the object of her "farewell" was a Yangzhou courtesan whom she had met in the poetic life of her staff. That is why the third line is about "Yangzhou Road". In the Tang Dynasty, Yangzhou was a prosperous city in terms of economy and culture, and was sometimes called "Yang Yi (Yizhou) Two". "Spring breeze" sentence meaning hearty, rendering the metropolis rich and luxurious style, so that people such as to see the ten-mile-long street, traffic, flowers and branches ------ where the singing platforms and dance pavilions are dense, beautiful women such as clouds. "Pearl Curtain" is the opera house bar set, "roll on the pearl curtain" can see the "high-rise red sleeves". I don't know how many pearl curtains there are on Yangzhou Road, and I don't know how many red-clothed and green-sleeved beauties there are under all the curtains, but "rolling up the pearl curtains is not as good as"! The use of the words "roll up the curtains" here is very unusual. It not only makes the conclusion of "always inferior" more graphic and persuasive, but also conveys the prosperity of Yangzhou together with its jewelry. The poem emphasizes the beauty of one person by suppressing the beauty of all the beauties in Yangzhou, which has the effect of the stars arching over the moon. Because of the wonderful simile in the first two lines, the writing style of "strengthening this and weakening the other" is obviously natural and marvelous.
Du Mu's poem is written from his lover to the flower, from the flower to the downtown of the spring city, from the downtown to the beauty, and finally to emphasize his lover. The twenty-eight words are freely and effortlessly.