Silkworms will weave until they die in spring, and candles will drain the wick every night. What does this mean?

It means: silkworms don't spin silk until they die, and wax oil like tears can drip dry when candles are burned to ashes.

Source.

Li Shangyin's untitled time was long before I met her, but it was even longer since we broke up in the Tang Dynasty.

———————————— The original text.

It was a long time ago that I met her, but since we separated, the time has become longer, the east wind is blowing and a hundred flowers are blooming.

Silkworms in spring will weave until they die, and candles will drain the wick every night.

In the morning, she saw her hair cloud changing in the mirror, but she bravely faced the cold of the moonlight with her evening song.

There are not many roads to Pengshan. Oh, Bluebird, listen! -Give me what she said! .

-Translation.

It's hard to meet each other, and it's even harder to leave, not to mention in this late spring when the east wind is weak and the flowers are withered.

Spring silkworms don't spin silk when they die, and wax oil like tears can drip dry when candles are burned to ashes.

Dress up in the morning and look in the mirror. I'm only worried that the clouds in my hair will change color and my face will be gone. I can't sleep alone in the long night, so I must feel Leng Yue's aggression.

Penglai Mountain is not too far from here, but there is no road to cross. Please visit me diligently by a messenger like the bluebird.

-Attention.

Untitled: Since the Tang Dynasty, some poets often use "untitled" as the title of their poems when they are unwilling to mark the topic that can express the theme.

When the east wind rises, a hundred flowers blossom: this refers to late spring, when a hundred flowers wither. East wind, spring breeze. Remain, wither.

Silk perfection: silk is homophonic with "thinking", which means "thinking" and contains the meaning of acacia.

Candle Torch: Candles.

Tears began to dry: tears refer to the burning candle oil, and pun here refers to the tears of acacia.

Xiaojing: Get dressed and look in the mirror in the morning. Mirror, used as a verb, means to look in the mirror.

Yunbin: A woman's beautiful hair is a symbol of her youth.

I should think: the word imagination.

Leng Yue: It refers to the deepening of the night.

Pengshan: Penglai Mountain, the legendary fairy mountain on the sea, refers to the fairyland and the residence of Sifu.

Jade bird: a mythical messenger who sent letters to the Queen Mother of the West.

Diligence: Friendship is sincere and profound.

Explore (kān): visit.

-Creative background.

In the Tang Dynasty, people advocated and believed in Taoism. At the age of fifteen or sixteen, Li Shangyin was sent to Yuyangshan by his family to learn Taoism. In the meantime, he met and fell in love with Song Huayang, a female Taoist priest in Yuyang Mountain, but their feelings could not be known to outsiders, and there was an irresistible wave of love in the author's heart, so he could only remember his feelings with poems and hide the topic, thus making his poems both vague, graceful and affectionate. Most of Li Shangyin's untitled poems are about their love stories. This poem is one of them.

-Appreciate it.

This poem expresses the love psychology in a feminine style. It contains burning desire and persistence in sorrow, and its emotional realm is profound and rich.

The first two sentences are about the unfortunate experience of love and the mood of the lyric hero: because of some power, it is difficult for a pair of lovers to meet each other, and the pain of separation is unbearable for her. The "don't" in the first sentence does not mean that we say goodbye now, but refers to the established forced separation. The word "difficult", the first refers to the difficulty of meeting, and the second is pain and embarrassment. In previous poems, some sentences such as "It's a piece of cake to meet difficulties" (Ge Yanxing by Cao Pi) and "It's a piece of cake to meet difficulties" (Hugh by Ding Du by Song Wudi) all emphasize the difficulty of reunion and lament the pain of parting. Li Shangyin went further from here, saying that "seeing each other late" means "parting is also difficult"-it is difficult to give up and the pain is unbearable. The poet used the word "difficult" twice in one sentence, and the appearance of the second word "difficult" gave people a slight sense of suddenness because of repetition, which made the whole poem interlocking and made the parting pain of reunion after a long separation particularly profound and lingering because of the low expression; This sentimental modality is not easy to understand in such a straightforward narrative as "Don't be easy to get". This lyric hero is already so sad, but facing the scenery in late spring, of course, it makes her sad. In late spring, the east wind is weak, flowers bloom and fall, and the beautiful spring is about to pass away. There is nothing that human beings can do about it. Their own misfortunes and mental pains are like flowers that wither with the passage of spring, because beautiful things are destroyed, which makes people feel endless disappointment and regret! The phrase "the east wind rises and a hundred flowers blossom" not only describes the natural environment, but also reflects the poet's state of mind. Things blend with me, and the mind and nature reach a subtle fit. This kind of description that reflects people's situation and feelings with scenery is common in Li Shangyin's works. For example, the first two sentences of "A note to friends in the north on a rainy night" say: "Jun asked that the return date is undecided, and the rain rose in the autumn pool in the evening." The second sentence not only symbolizes that the poet stays in Bashu, but also reflects the boredom of leaving. For example, in "And the East Wind Has Arised, Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom", realism and symbolism are integrated into one, giving feelings a tangible external form, which is usually called the lyrical way of feeling in the scene.

In a few words, it is more tortuous to write the feelings of "seeing each other late" and "inseparable". The word "silk" in "Spring silkworms must weave until they die" is homophonic with "thinking". You miss each other like silkworms until you die. "And the candle will cry the wick every night" is a metaphor for the endless pain of not being together, as if the candle burned to ashes and the wax tears ran out. Miss more than, showing deep attachment, but will spend a lifetime in miss, but it also shows that meeting is indefinite and the future is hopeless. Therefore, his own pain will accompany him all his life. However, although the future is hopeless, she loves it to death and will be attached to it all her life; Despite the pain, there is only patience. Therefore, in these two sentences, there are both disappointed sadness and pain, as well as lingering and burning persistence and pursuit. Pursuit is hopeless, and we still have to pursue it in hopelessness, so this pursuit is also pessimistic. These feelings seem to circulate endlessly, and it is difficult to find the end; It seems to have formed a multi-faceted solid, and light can't see the whole picture from one angle. The poet successfully expressed such a complicated psychological state with only two metaphors, which shows that his association is very rich. The phrase "Spring Silkworm" is first of all the association between the lingering attachment of human beings and the endless spinning of spring silkworms, and then from the spinning of silkworms to the ending of "death" and then to the unswerving love of human beings. So writing "silk to death" gives this image various metaphorical meanings. "Silkworm should not be old (no, it means' ignoring' here), and it often wears silk day and night. What a pity! When you are exhausted, it is time to be lingering. " The intention is similar to the sentence of "Spring Silkworm" in Untitled. The idea of "how to be tired" of spring silkworms here is a kind of idea of "lingering has its own time", and its future is quite promising. The phrase "spring silkworm" in Untitled is not like this. As far as its pursuit spirit is concerned, its pursuit is hopeless, but it doesn't care if there is hope. Different emotional realms make associations more tortuous. In the Yuefu before Li Shangyin, it was not uncommon to compare burning candles with suffering. For example, "Thinking of you is like a candle, frying in the middle of the night" (Wang Rong's "Gentleman Coming Out"), "Thinking of you is like a candle, frying in tears for a thousand lines" (Chen, same topic) and so on. "Every night the candle will cry the wick away" is also a metaphor of the candle, but it does not simply compare the pain with wax tears. But through "starting from the ashes", it further embodies the painful feeling of life. Lenovo is much more profound and complicated than previous people, and its image is much richer.

The above four sentences focus on revealing inner emotional activities and concretizing unspeakable complex feelings, which are beautifully written. Five or six sentences are translated into extroverted ideas. The first sentence is about yourself, and the second sentence is about imagining each other. "Changing sideburns" refers to being unable to sleep at night because of painful torture, resulting in gray sideburns and haggard face. This is what Wu Yun, a poet of the Six Dynasties, said: "Worrying changes sideburns, crying makes beauty disappear" (Six Poems with Ma Xiaoxi). However, the sentence "Xiao Jing" in Untitled said that when I looked in the mirror in the morning, I was worried about "cloud change" and it was "but worried"-just worried. This vividly describes the spiritual activities of graceful songs, rather than simply describing the fact that youth is consumed by pain. The night is haggard because of pain, and the morning is haggard and painful. The pain at night is because the pursuit of love cannot be realized; The next day I was worried about haggard, hoping to stay young for love. In short, I am haggard with love, but I am depressed with pain. This lingering feeling day and night still shows a painful and persistent heart. The phrase "nocturne" is to put yourself in the other person's shoes and imagine that the other person is as painful as himself. He guessed that the other party would probably suffer from insomnia at night and often sang poems to mourn, but he was so worried that he couldn't get rid of it, so he felt that the environment was getting more and more desolate, the moonlight was cold, and his mood was even more bleak. The hue under the moon is cold, and "feeling cold in the moonlight" reflects psychological desolation through physical coldness. The word "should" is a tone of conjecture and expectation, indicating that all this is my imagination of the other party. The imagination is so vivid that it reflects her eagerness and deep understanding of her lover.

The more concrete you imagine, the deeper you miss, and the more you will ignite the desire to meet. Since there is no hope of meeting, I have to ask the messenger to pay tribute to myself and visit him in person. This is the last two sentences. Poems often compare immortal couples. Jade bird is the messenger of a goddess, the Queen Mother of the West. Pengshan is a fairy mountain in myths and legends, so here Pengshan is regarded as the symbol of the other party's residence, and Jade Bird appears as the messenger of the lyric hero. This hope at the end of the messenger has not changed the painful situation of "meeting each other late", but it is a hopeless hope and the future is still slim. When the poem is over, the pain and pursuit of the lyric hero will continue.

This poem is full of pain, disappointment, lingering and persistent feelings from beginning to end. Every couplet in the poem is a reflection of this emotional state, but the specific artistic conception of each couplet is different. They repeatedly show the complex emotions throughout the poem from different sides, and at the same time reflect the psychological process with this complex emotion as its content vertically with their close connection. This continuous, implicit and profound lyricism successfully reproduces the deep affection in my heart.

Li Shangyin had similar descriptions in the first, third, fourth and fifth sentences of his previous poetry creation. The poet was inspired, inherited and used for reference by his predecessors. However, he did not simply imitate his predecessors, but took a big step forward with high creativity, transforming the original simple means of expression into more tortuous and vivid, so as to reflect richer and deeper thoughts and feelings. In fact, he has removed the old traces and become a new creation. It can be seen that the poet's rich literary accomplishment and exploration of artistic conception and means of expression are important conditions for the success of this poem.

-About the author-

Li Shangyin (about 813-about 858), a native of Yuxi, xi, was a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. His ancestral home is Qinyang, Hanoi (now Jiaozuo, Henan) and Xingyang, Zhengzhou. He is good at poetry writing, and his parallel prose also has high literary value. He is one of the most outstanding poets in the late Tang Dynasty. Together with Du Mu, it is called "Xiao", and together with Wen, it is called "Wen Li". Because his poems and essays are similar to the paragraphs and essays of the same period, all three of them rank sixteenth in the family, so they are also called "Thirty-six Style". His poems are novel in conception and beautiful in style, especially some love poems and untitled poems are touching, beautiful and moving, and are widely read. However, some poems are too obscure to be solved, and there is even a saying that "poets always love Quincy and hate that no one writes about Jian Zheng". Caught in the struggle between Niu and Li, I was frustrated all my life. After his death, he was buried in his hometown of Qinyang (now the junction of Qinyang and Aibo County in Jiaozuo City, Henan Province). His works are included in Li Yishan's poems.