Late Scene of the Spring River in Huichong
Su Shi [Song Dynasty]
Three or two branches of peach blossoms outside the bamboo are a prophet of the warmth of the spring river.
The ground is full of mugwort and reed buds are short, which is when puffer fish are about to come.
Translation
Two or three peach blossoms are blooming outside the bamboo forest, and the ducks playing in the water are the first to notice the warming of the river in early spring.
The river beach is covered with mugwort, and the reeds have sprouted short new shoots. At this time, the pufferfish is about to swim upstream from the sea to the river.
Appreciation
This poem is titled "Duck Play Picture", which reproduces the mid-spring scenery of Jiangnan in the original painting, and integrates the poet's reasonable imagination to complement the original painting.
"Three or two peach blossoms outside the bamboo", looking across the sparse green bamboo, a few peach blossoms are swaying. Peach and bamboo contrast with each other, and red and green set off the scenery. The spring atmosphere is particularly lovely. Although this is just a simple sentence, it reveals a lot of information. First of all, it shows the sparseness of the bamboo forest. If it were dense, the peach blossoms would not be visible. Secondly, it indicates the season and highlights the word "early". The spring cold has just passed, and it is not the time for the peach blossoms to bloom yet, but the infinite vitality and potential of spring have already been revealed.
"The Duck Prophet of the Spring River Plumbing", the vision is from far to near, that is, from the river bank to the river surface. The spring water on the river is rippling, and the active ducks are playing in the river. The "Duck Prophet" side shows that the spring river water is still slightly chilly, so other animals are not yet sensitive to the coming of spring. This echoes the "three or two branches" of peach blossoms in the first sentence, indicating the early spring season. This poem is adapted from a Tang Dynasty poem: Meng Jiao "What is the most prophetic thing? Fight for the Xuxu grass", Du Mu (a work by Xu Hun) "The water under the root of the cattail is warm, and the wild geese are beginning to fall, and the plum path is fragrant and the bees are unknown" ("Early Spring Boat Trip") 》). Su Shi learned from the past but not from the past. He combined the creative ideas of his predecessors' poems with his own accumulation of observations to form this fine sentence. "The duck knows the water is warm" is something that appeals to feelings and imagination. It is difficult to convey it in pictures, but the poet expresses it in his poems through his experience of putting himself in his shoes. The ducks playing freely in the river are the first to feel the rising temperature of the spring water, and use the tactile impression of "warmth" to supplement the visual impression of the spring water in the painting. The reason why ducks can "predict the warmth of the spring river" is because they live in the water all year round. As long as the river is not frozen, they will always jump into the water to play. Therefore, the first people to know about the changes in the water temperature of the Spring River are naturally these ducks, which are closely related to the water. This means that everything must be experienced personally to have a true feeling. This poem not only reflects the poet's meticulous observation of nature, but also embodies the poet's philosophical thinking about life. A duck can tell when a river is warm in spring when it goes into the water, which is comparable to the saying of "a fallen leaf can tell the world is in autumn".
“The ground is full of wormwood and the reed buds are short.” These two lines of poem still closely describe “early spring”. The ground is full of wormwood and the short reed buds are alternately yellow and green, gorgeous and charming. It presents a scene full of spring and prosperity. "Pufferfish wants to go up" borrows the characteristic that pufferfish only go upstream when the water in the Spring River is warm, further highlighting the word "spring", which is originally missing in the picture and difficult to reach with a brush, but the poet successfully "describes the scene that is difficult to describe". At present", injecting the breath of spring and vitality of life into the whole picture. Zhang Lei, a student of Su Shi, also recorded in "Mingdao Magazine" that the natives in the Yangtze River area eat puffer fish, "but they cook it with three ingredients: Artemisia chrysanthemum and bamboo shoots, that is, reed sprouts and water spinach", believing that these three items are the most suitable combination with puffer fish. It can be seen that Su Shi's association is well-founded and natural. The beauty of poetry also depends on this.
Although the picture of "It is the time when the pufferfish is about to rise" does not describe the movements of the pufferfish, the poet inferred from the thickets of wormwood and reed sprouts that "the pufferfish is about to rise", and thus painted the dolphins in the spring river. The image of going up the river at the time of the accident supplements the real situation with the imaginary virtual situation. Su Shi used this kind of pen and ink to transform silent and static pictures into a sound and moving poetic realm. In Su Shi's eyes, this painting is no longer a flat, static picture on paper within the frame, but gives people a sense of ecology with its deep inner experience and subtle and delicate observation. The former is picturesque, while the latter is realistic. The two are confused, and I don't know which is the painting and which is the real scene. The poet's artistic association broadens the world beyond the visual expression of painting, and perfectly combines poetry and painting.
This poem successfully describes the scenery of the Spring River in early spring. Su Shi used his meticulous and keen feelings to capture the characteristics of the scenery during the change of seasons and express his joy and praise for early spring. The whole poem is full of spring and full of vitality, giving people a feeling of freshness and comfort. The poet Su Shi proposed that "the poems and paintings are consistent, both natural and fresh" ("Two Broken Branches Painted by the Master of Book Yanling"), "There are paintings in poems, and there are poems in paintings" (Volume 5 of "Dongpo Inscriptions and Postscripts") "Mojie Lantian Misty Rain Picture") has been well verified in his painting poem "Huichong Spring River Evening Scene".