"Bed" refers to the fence on the well.
From "Thoughts on a Quiet Night" by Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai
The bright moonlight in front of the bed is suspected to be frost on the ground.
Look up at the bright moon and lower your head to think about your hometown.
Appreciation
This poem is about the feeling of missing my hometown on a silent moonlit night.
The first two sentences of the poem describe the poet's momentary illusion in the specific environment of visiting a foreign country. For a person who lives alone in a foreign country, running around and being busy during the day can dilute the sorrow of separation. However, in the dead of night, it is inevitable that waves of longing for his hometown will arise in his heart. What's more, it's a moonlit night, let alone an autumn night with a frosty moonlight. The word "suspect" in "Suspect is frost on the ground" vividly expresses the poet's confusion when he first wakes up from sleep, mistaking the cold moonlight shining in front of his bed for thick frost covering the ground. The word "frost" is used even better. It not only describes the brightness of the moonlight, but also expresses the coldness of the season. It also highlights the loneliness and desolation of the poet wandering in a foreign country.
The last two sentences of the poem deepen the homesickness through the depiction of movements and expressions. The word "wang" echoes the word "suspicious" in the previous sentence, indicating that the poet has turned from daze to sobriety. He stared at the moon eagerly and couldn't help but think that his hometown was also under the shining of this bright moon at this moment. This naturally leads to the conclusion of "lowering my head and thinking about my hometown". The action of "lowering the head" depicts the poet completely in deep contemplation. And the word "thinking" leaves readers with rich imagination: the fathers and brothers, relatives and friends in the hometown, the mountains, rivers, plants and trees in the hometown, the lost years and past events... they are all missed. The content contained in the word "thinking" is really rich.
Hu Yinglin, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, said: "The quatrains in Taibai are composed of words. The so-called people who do not intend to work but do not work hard." (Volume 6 of "Shisou·Neipian") Wang Shimao believes: "(quatrains) In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, only Qinglian (Li Bai) and Long Biao (Wang Changling) were extremely accomplished. Li Gengzi, the former resident of Wangshang, said: "What is "natural"? "Woolen cloth? This song "Quiet Night Thoughts" is an example. Therefore, Hu specially brought it up and said it was "wonderful both in ancient and modern times".
This little poem has neither strange and novel imagination, nor sophisticated and beautiful rhetoric; it only uses a narrative tone to write about the homesickness of distant visitors, but it is meaningful, thought-provoking, and countless It has attracted readers for many years.
Anyone who is a guest in a foreign country will probably have this feeling: it’s fine during the day, but in the dead of night, homesickness will inevitably arise in the heart; let alone a moonlit night. , not to mention the autumn night when the moon is as bright as frost!
The moon is white and the frost is clear, which is a clear autumn night scene; using frost color to describe the moonlight is also often seen in classical poetry. For example, Emperor Wen of the Liang Dynasty Xiao Gang's poem "Enjoying the Coolness in Xuanpu" contains the sentence "The night moon is like autumn frost"; and Zhang Ruoxu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty who was slightly earlier than Li Bai, used the sentence "The frost is flowing in the sky without noticing it" in "Moonlit Night on the Spring River". "Fly" is used to describe the clear and clear moonlight, which gives people a three-dimensional sense, especially the wonderful conception. But these all appear in poetry as a rhetorical device. The poem's "suspected to be frost on the ground" is a narrative rather than an imitation of an object. It is an illusion that the poet had in a specific environment for a moment. Why is there such an illusion? It is not difficult to imagine that these two sentences describe the scene of being unable to fall asleep late at night in the guest house and having the first short dream. The courtyard was lonely at this time, and the bright moonlight through the window shone in front of the bed, bringing the cold autumn night chill. The poet took a hazy first glance, and in his confused mood, it really seemed as if the ground was covered with a layer of thick white frost; but when he took a closer look, the surrounding environment told him that this was not frost marks but moonlight. The moonlight inevitably attracted him to look up and see a round of beautiful women hanging in front of the window. The space in the autumn night was so bright and clear! At this time, he was fully awake.
The autumn moon is exceptionally bright, but it is also cold. For travelers who are far away alone, it is most likely to trigger the nostalgia for travel, making people feel that the guest situation is bleak and the years are fleeting. Staring at the moon is also the easiest way for people to have reverie, thinking of everything in their hometown and their relatives at home. Thinking, thinking, his head gradually lowered, completely immersed in contemplation.
From "doubt" to "raise head", and from "raise head" to "lower head", it vividly reveals the poet's inner activities and vividly outlines a vivid picture of homesickness on a moonlit night.
A short four-line poem, written in a fresh and simple way, as clear as words. Its content is simple, but at the same time it is rich. It is easy to understand, but it is difficult to appreciate. What the poet does not say is much more than what he has said. Its conception is meticulous and profound, but it is also composed without any trace. From here, it is not difficult for readers to understand the beauty of Li Bai's quatrains in terms of "nature" and "no intention of work but no lack of work".