Chinese poem illustration: 小雅 采薇/ Xiaoya – Cai Wei by Anonymous
Wei(薇) is generally explained as vicia sepium, which I do not think it is the case. From the composition of this Chinese character, it must be referring some grass with tiny flower or tiny leaves. The word of picking up this grass(采薇) has a very clear connection with hermit in Chinese literature, while it is hard to tell if this metaphor was employed in this poem.
This poem is about a war with the nomad invaders from north(猃狁), it doesn’t talk much about the war itself but the life of the poet/soldiers and their families back home, the sadness of separating from each other, the huge worry toward their family members: are they still alive? could they feed themselves?
This poem laid the cornerstone of the later poetry genre: Trip of Duty Poetry(羁旅行役诗) and Thinking of Home and People Poetry(思乡怀人诗).
Part1 is about the life in the battlefield with huge worries for his home. Part 2 is about the glorious troop marching homeward bound, yet ended with even more untold sadness when closer to his home.
The sentence “昔我往矣，杨柳依依。今我来思，雨雪霏霏。 ” is praised through the history as one of the most touching and beautiful sentences among Book of Songs.
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