Original text:
The new year is not yet full of youth, and I was surprised to see grass buds in early February.
The white snow is too late for spring, so it flies through the trees in the garden.
Author: (Tang Dynasty) Han Yu
Translation: The New Year has arrived, but there are no fragrant flowers yet. In February, I was pleasantly surprised to find new shoots of grass sprouting. Bai Xue also thought that spring came too late, so she deliberately turned into flowers and flew among the trees in the courtyard.
Appreciation:
The New Year is the first day of the first lunar month. This day is the beginning of spring, so it marks the arrival of spring. There are no fragrant flowers in the New Year yet, which makes people who have been looking forward to spring for a long time in the long cold winter extremely anxious. The word "du" reveals this eager mood.
The second sentence "I was surprised to see grass buds in early February" means that there are no flowers in February, but it is said from the side, and the feelings are not simply sighs and regrets. The word "surprise" is best played with. It does not seem to indicate that the poet was surprised and disappointed that the grass buds had just appeared in February, but that he was pleasantly surprised to finally see the buds of "spring" in anxious anticipation.
On the surface, the third and fourth sentences say that there is snow but no flowers, but the actual feeling is: people can still wait for the belated spring, and see the figure of spring in the grass buds in February, But Bai Xue couldn't wait any longer, and actually flew into the air, flying through the trees, and decorated herself with a spring scenery. The poet is not mainly disappointed or regretful about the spring snow and flying flowers, but is happy.