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晚春
唐 - Táng (618 - 907)
韩愈 -- Hán Yù
草木知春不久归 - Cǎomù zhī chūn bù jiǔ guī，
百般红紫斗芳菲 - Bǎibān hóngzǐ dòu fāngfēi。
杨花榆荚无才思 - Yánghuā yújiá wú cáisī，
惟解漫天作雪飞 - Wéi jiě màntiān zuò xuě fēi。
草木知春不久归 - Cǎomù zhī chūn bù jiǔ guī，
百般红紫斗芳菲 - Bǎibān hóngzǐ dòu fāngfēi。
杨花榆荚无才思 - Yánghuā yújiá wú cáisī，
惟解漫天作雪飞 - Wéi jiě màntiān zuò xuě fēi。
惟解漫天作雪飞 - Wéi jiě màntiān zuò xuě fēi。
|#|Late Spring
by Han Yu ( Tang Dynasty)
The grass and trees " know " spring will be soon gone,
(They )show their last fragrance with red, purple and all colors.
Willow catkin and elm seeds have no colors to show,
Still they are flying as/like snow all over the sky.
The grass and trees " know " spring will be soon gone,
(They )show their last fragrance with red, purple and all colors.
Willow catkin and elm seeds have no colors to show,
Still they are flying as/like snow all over the sky.
Still they are flying as/like snow all over the sky.
|#|Hai Yu(768 - 824) was from today's Henai, he was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations in 792. He then held many official positions and he was one of the greatest ideologist and litterateurs in the Tang Dynasty.
Hai Yu's literary achievement focused on prose and poetry. He was one of the most important advocators of the Tang Dynasty Classical Prose Movement and a famous prose writer. He thought the language of prose should be creative. Language should serve the content. Both Hai Yu and Liu Zongyuan made Chinese prose writing enter a new phase.
Han Yu enjoyed publishing his opinions, expressing some philosophical viewpoint in his poems, and using some special words to create his own special art style.
Hai Yu’s literary thoughts and theories have had a great affect on the development of Chinese prose and poetry down to the present day.
|#||#|This poem is quite famous because it not only paints out a beautiful picture of late spring but it has also brought people much inspiration.
Let us look at the poem line by line:
The first line: 草木知春不久归 - Cǎo mù zhī chūn bù jiǔ guī. 草木means grass and trees, vegetation, flora; 草cǎo means glass; 木 mù means wood; 知 zhī means know 春 chūn means spring 不 bù means not, no; 久 jiǔ means for a long time, long; 归 guī means go back to, return. This line means the grass and trees " know " the spring will be go back soon.
The second line: 百般红紫斗芳菲 - bǎibān hóngzǐ dòu fāngfēi, 百般bǎibān means all kinds of manners，ways or methods; 百bǎi means hundred； 般bān means kind, sort, way; 红hóng means red; 紫zǐ means purple, violet; 斗dòu means contest with, fight; 芳fāng means sweet smell, fragrant, good ;(name or reputation); virtuous; 菲fēi luxuriant. This line means all of the vegetation show their last fragrance with red, purple and all colors.
The third line: 杨花榆荚无才思 - Yánghuā yújiá wú cáisī. 杨yáng means poplar, 花huā means flower; blossom; 杨花yánghuā points poplar blossom, poplar filaments; 榆yú means elm; 荚jiá means pod, ; 榆荚yú jiá means elm seeds, pods; 无wú means not have, there is not; 才cái means ability, talent, gift; 思sī means think, consider; 才思 cáisī means brilliant thought, imaginative power or creativeness. This line means willow catkin and elm seeds have not much color / talent to show.
惟解漫天作雪飞 - wéi jiě màntiān zuò xuě fēi. 惟wéi means only, alone, but 解jiě means understand, know; 漫màn means all over the place, everywhere; 天tiān means sky, heaven, day; 漫天màn tiān means filling the whole sky, all over the sky; 作zuò means act as, do, make; 雪xuě meas snow; 飞fēi means fly, flutter, flit. This line means they only know how to fly like snow all over the sky. Or but /still they know to fly as snow all over the sky.
With these simple lines Han Yu gave the grass and the trees some human feelings, lifestyles and ideas:
It seems like the草木 cǎomù – vegetation, all the grass and the trees " know" the spring will be over soon, so that they are " vying " to show their last, sweetest fragrances: The smart flowers know how to show their beauty by "Vying" with their beautiful color, red, purple and all colors; Even the willow catkin and the elm seeds who don't have much creativity and not more color to show, they also "Know" how to fly like snow...
By means of endowing vegetation with the feelings of humans, this poem has created a beautiful artistic conception with a “ landscape” with a series of views of late spring and it gives readers a huge space of imagination. Different people will have different understandings about this poem and see some different sceneries in their minds.
There are at least three kinds of explanations about the meaning of this poem:
-- To admire the smartness of the grass and the trees for they have done their best to bring people a most beautiful spring, while teasing the willow catkin and elm seeds because they can only fly in the sky like snow and do not know how to show the world something more beautiful.
To advise people to study and work hard as early as possible, then they will be able to show their beauty like the grass and trees, and not be in such an awkward position as the willow catkin and the elm seeds were during in late spring season.
-- To admire the grass and the trees, also the willow catkin and elm seeds. The latter has done their best to accompany the grass and the trees, by filling the sky with their small white seeds they serve as a foil against the beauty of the grass and trees standing out... just as some “little people” serve as a foil against which the "great people’s” standout...
To encourage common people to do their best and not underestimate their own capabilities. As long as we have made our best, we can also contribute to the beauty of this wonderful world.
-- To admire the simple but free lifestyle and psychology of the willow catkin and elm seeds : the flowers and trees knows that their time will be finished along with spring going soon, therefore, they exhaust their abilities and just want to catch up with their last flashy style; the willow catkin and elm seeds do not think this is worth doing, they fly elegantly and gracefully over the sky, overlooking the funny situation with smiles…
To people who are very positive, maybe they would like to learn from the grass and the trees and make use of the most of their limited time to live and work and to make their lives as bright and beautiful as possible. To people who have a different attitude to life, maybe they would like to learn from the catkin and elm seeds and not care for material things, such as money and high position, but just to fly high in the sky to see the entire world...
I think, once you know that the poet Han Yu was the greatest ideologist of the Tang Dynasty, then you will not be surprised that this little poem can be understood in so many ways...
|#|This world consists of innumerable people and things. Among people, there are many important persons but more people are little potatoes; among vegetation, there are some great and precious flowers but more plants are general or common. Just because all of them work together, this world can become so beautiful and be able to make progress with time.
If we just pay more attention to thinking of the interests of those great people or precious things and ignore the little potatoes, this world will not be in harmony and go forward normally. It is the same as the other way round. After all, everyone who lives in the world relies on the service of maybe more than 200 other people. The lives of all people depend on the help, support, influence and so on of others.
So, a smart management, an organization or an individual may be someone who understands how to inspire people around them to show their own advantages to serve others and the world. As long as every one in this world can use their abilities, great or small, to benefit others and benefit the world, all of the world would become more beautiful, peaceful and harmonious.
I have enjoyed this poem since I read it for the first time, and I wrote a piece of music to accompany the poem in 2006. Then in June, 2013, when I tried to shift a traditional Chinese classical painting from Chinese Gongbi style to be Chinese Xieyi style in Chinese National Academy of Arts, this poem plunged into my mind. I tried to re-translate the poem into English and I re-wrote the music and the article. Then when I was in my winter vacation at CNAA, 2015, I modified the article once more. And now I am corrected this article in my travel in the USA. I really hope that my effort will be of some help to you in learning more about Chinese culture and language...
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you are welcome to write to shirley@ebridge.cn or publish them on the Message Board on www.ebridge.cn.
Shirley Yiping Zhang
November 30, 2017 in China
November 3, 2016 in the USA
March 9, 2015 in China
July 23, 2013 in China
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