142. The Cicada | Li Shangyin
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
本以高难饱，徒劳恨费声。
English translation
The cicada, being high, can hardly eat its fill; in vain it grieves and wastes its cry.
"High and hard to fill" is the cicada on a tall tree drinking dew, unable to eat its fill. "Wasting its voice" is crying for nothing. On the surface this couplet describes the cicada, but in fact it is a self-portrait.
Original Chinese text
五更疏欲断，一树碧无情。
English translation
At the fifth watch its notes thin out and are about to cease; the whole tree is green and without feeling.
"The whole tree green and unmoved" is a famous line in the poem: the tree is so flourishing that it is utterly unaware of the cicada's plight. The one without feeling is the tree, and also the bystander.
Original Chinese text
薄宦梗犹泛，故园芜已平。
English translation
A petty official, I drift like a broken stalk; my old garden is overgrown and level.
'Drifting as a stalk' alludes to the floating peach-wood figure, meaning drifting without a fixed place; 'overgrown and level' means the old home is ruined past recognition.
Original Chinese text
烦君最相警，我亦举家清。
English translation
I must trouble you, cicada, to warn me most of all; I too, with my whole family, am poor and pure.
“My whole family is poor and pure” continues the previous line, “high and never full”: the cicada is poor and pure, and so is the man. The last line formally joins the man and the cicada.
赏析 · Commentary
咏物诗的规矩：不即不离 · The Rule for Poems on Things: Close but Not Merged
咏物诗最难的是分寸：写得太实就只是昆虫记，写得太虚就丢了对象。李商隐的写法是每一句都两头成立。「高难饱」既写蝉在高处喝露水，也写自己官小俸薄；「费声」既写蝉鸣，也写自己上书的无用。四联都是这样，蝉与人不分不散，读法可以两面走。
The hard part of a poem on an object is proportion: too literal and it is entomology, too free and the object is lost. Li Shangyin's method is to make every line work both ways. "High and never full" is a cicada drinking dew in a treetop and a man in a small post on a thin salary; "wasting its voice" is insect song and a useless memorial to the throne. All four couplets do this, neither merging the two nor separating them, and the poem can be read either way.
「一树碧无情」 · "The Whole Tree Green and Unmoved"
这一句是被人传诵最多的，因为它把一个难说的处境说清了：你叫得声嘶力竭，环境依旧葱茏，毫无反应。李商隐不说「无人理会」，而是给了一个画面——一树碧绿。无情两个字落在树上，真正的对象却是听不见的那些人。这样的写法在唐诗里叫「以景代情」，比直接控诉更冷。
This is the most quoted line, and it is quoted because it makes a hard situation clear: you cry until your voice breaks and the surroundings stay lush and answer nothing. Li Shangyin does not say "no one listens"; he gives a picture — a whole tree of green. The word "unmoved" is put on the tree and is really about those who cannot hear. Tang verse calls this letting scenery stand for feeling, and it is colder than direct accusation.
末句把两层合成一层 · The Last Line Folds the Two Layers Together
"烦君最相警，我亦举家清" — 前面蝉是蝉、人是人，末句把它们合成一个「清」字。这个字既是蝉吸露的清，也是人做官的清（清廉而清贫）。李商隐用同一个字结住两条线，等于声明：我说的是它，也是我。咏物诗到这里才算完成。
"I trouble you to warn me best; my household too is clear" — the cicada has been the cicada and the man the man, and the last line folds them into one word, qing, meaning both clear dew-drinking and an official's clean poverty. Li Shangyin closes both threads with the same character, which amounts to a declaration: I mean the insect, and I mean myself. Only here is the poem on a thing complete.