What does it mean that life has no roots and floats on strangers like dust?

Life is rootless, floating like dust on a stranger.

Note-Pedicel (Didi): Melon pulp, fruit nose, flowers and branches are all called pedicels. Mo: The Tao of things refers to Tao in general here. These two sentences mean that life has no roots in the world and floats like dust on the road.

Interpretation-Life is rootless, floating like dust on a stranger. These two sentences mean that life has no roots and floats like dust on the road.

Origin-Tao Yuanming's Miscellaneous Poems

The original poem "Miscellaneous Poems"—

Life without a base is like the dust of the road.

Life blowing in the wind, the body has gone through hardships, and it is not what it used to be.

When the world is brothers, why do brothers of their own brothers want to date each other?

When you meet a pleasure, you should be happy, and you should invite your neighbors to drink.

Once the youth is gone, it will never come again, and you will never see the arrival of the next day.

It's time for people to encourage themselves when they reach middle age. Time goes by and waits for no one.

Translation-

Life has no roots in the world and drifts like dust on the road. Life blowing in the wind, this body has gone through hardships and is no longer what it used to be. The whole world wants to be brothers, why do biological brothers want to date each other? When you are happy, you should be happy. If there is wine, you should invite your neighbors to drink together. Once youth is gone, it is impossible to come back and never see the next day. We should encourage ourselves in our prime. Time goes by and waits for no one.

Extended data

Tao Yuanming has twelve miscellaneous poems, this is the first one. Mr. Yao Yao thinks that the first eight songs are "consistent in words and deeds" and regarded as the same year. According to the meaning of his six sentences "fifty years later, I suddenly kissed this matter", it was proved that it was written in AD 4 14 (the tenth year of Jin 'an Emperor Yi Xi). At that time, Tao Yuanming was fifty years old and it had been eight years since he resigned and returned to the field.

This group of miscellaneous poems is actually a mixed love poem, which is "not limited to examples, but talking about things" (Shan Li's Notes on Selected Works). As the fourth volume of Tao Shi Jie said: "Twelve poems are all sorrow, the eighth is poverty, and the rest are all regrets for the boss. Sorrow and indignation are equal to Chu Ci. " It can be said that lamenting the impermanence of life and feeling the shortness of life are the keynote of this group of essays.

"Life without Roots" four sentences "Nineteen Ancient Poems" "Life is a lifetime, and elections suddenly drift away", lamenting the impermanence of life. Pedicle, that is, the part where flowers and fruits are connected with branches and stems. Life in this world is like a rootless tree, a rootless flower, without landing or roots, just like dust floating in the wind on the road.

Because fate is unpredictable and life is uncertain, all kinds of encounters and changes are constantly changing people, and everyone is no longer the original self. Although the language of these four poems is ordinary, they are full of surprises. Comparing life to a rootless tree and a rootless flower is a metaphor, and comparing it to a stranger in the dust is also a metaphor, a comparison between China and the outside image, which directly writes the poet's profound life experience and reveals his deepest sorrow.

Although Tao Yuanming's ambition is "to be ambitious and escape all over the world", he was born around the Jin, Song and Yi Dynasties when politics was dark, wars were frequent, the country was restless, and people were in poverty. Forced by his livelihood, he retired several times and lived in contradiction and pain. Finally, at the age of forty-one, he resigned and returned to the field, no longer being an official.

Such a world and such an experience made him feel uncertain and uncertain about life. Although in his reclusive poems, readers can feel his broad-minded and detached ambition and his peaceful and diluted feelings, in his heart, there is an disillusioned loss and an illusory despair of life.

When this poem was written, it lamented that fate could not be grasped, which made people feel confused and sad to read. Then, it aroused a little bit, and the poet persistently sought friendship, joy and a glimmer of hope in life. The last one is impassioned and makes people excited. The language of the whole poem is unpretentious, the metaphor is ordinary, and the quality is rough as jade, but the connotation is extremely rich, undulating and thought-provoking.

References:

Miscellaneous poems have no roots in life-Baidu Encyclopedia