I Stand Alone
A single bird of prey beyond the sky,
a pair of while gulls between riverbanks.
Hovering wind-tossed, ready to strike;
the pair, at the ease, roaming to and fro.
And the dew is also full on the grasses,
spider’s filaments still now drawn in.
Instigations in the nature approach men’s affairs
I stand alone in thousands of sources of worry.
Based from reading this poem, the author points out his view of rise and fall of his society. In the poem, he uses and compares two different birds, a bird of prey and a pair of white gulls. From there, he differentiates that bird of prey as the end of an era while a pair of white gulls represent the era that he witness that it will come. From there, he sees how society is worrying and fear that the era is coming to the end and doesn’t want to let that happen. As for the author, he accepts it since it is a connected concept of living.
Du Fu’s poem “I Stand Alone” reminds me of a song called “Buried Alive” by a rap artist, Logic. Both the author and the artist share the view of changes in society. Here is a line of lyrics from the song:
Look around, everything changes
It feels like I’ve been buried alive.
This lyric related to the previous quote that was mentioned. While the idea between two is different, but the concept is the same. The author is alone, surrounded with frightening people because the Tang dynasty was coming to an end. As for the artist, he feels being “buried alive” as everything around him changes drastically to a point that he couldn’t recognize or accept.
I thought this was a great comparison especially about the part on views of changes in the society. Logic has deep meaning in his lyrics and you interpreted it nicely. Logic is a great rapper not many people know about so great find.
I think that it’s interesting to compare the feeling of being alone that Logic feels in “Buried Alive” to the way Du Fu feels in “I Stand Alone. ” Logic’s song is in nature about how everything that goes on in the world around us makes him feel buried alive, and how the experience is too intense for him to handle. He believes that the grass is greener on the other side, and he contemplates wether he really wants another existence than his current state of affairs. Meanwhile, the poet Du Fu has experienced the trauma of watching the Tang Dynasty collapse. Both of them are feeling alone and the possibility of a better future is on both of their minds, with lyrics such as the grass is greener on the other side, and the dew if full of the grasses. I think you found a really awesome pairing here!
I appreciate your comments. I was struck at first, but then I found out the connection after reading the poem and listening the song together multiple times.