This poem comes from "Xiao Gao Farewell Bamboo Branch Poems" written by Shen Mingchen, a "commoner poet" in the Ming Dynasty.
Shen Mingchen (1518～1596) was a poet of the Ming Dynasty. The courtesy name was Jiaze, a native of Haojuzhangshan, and his late nickname was President Yue. He was a native of Yinxian County (now Ningbo, Zhejiang Province). He wrote more than 7,000 poems in his life, and together with Wang Shucheng and Wang Zhideng, he was known as the three "poet poets" during the Wanli period. Mingchen is the author of forty-three volumes of "Selected Poems of Feng Dui Lou" and one volume of "Yue Cao". He also wrote "Jingxi Singing Poems", "Wuyue Travel Manuscript", "Tongzhou Chronicles" and so on.
The meaning of the poem is: The weather is neither cold nor hot when the plums are green and yellow, and it is very comfortable. The season when the red and white flowers are blooming is the time when people are sowing seeds in the fields. Swallows are building nests in the mud, the mud is still wet, doves and doves are singing freely, and the misty spring rain keeps falling. It is like a Jiangnan ink painting.
Word notes: [1] Xiao Gao Bieye: the name of the villa of the author’s friend Li Binfu.
〔2〕Zhuzhi Ci: "Zhuzhi" is the name of a folk song in Sichuan. Literati often use it to describe local scenery or folk customs with local color.
[3] Green and yellow plum blossoms: The season when plums are green and yellow.
〔4〕Warm and cool days: The weather is warm and cool.
〔5〕Bujiu (bó jiū): The name of the bird. It sings very urgently when it is about to rain. It is commonly known as the water dove.
〔6〕Smoke: The drizzle looks like smoke.
Center: This poem describes a busy and tranquil ink landscape of farmhouses in the south of the Yangtze River in spring, forming a beautiful spring scene in the south of the Yangtze River and expressing the author's love and praise for the life of the farmhouses in the south of the Yangtze River.