April in the Country is a seven-character quatrain written by Weng Juan, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty.
The original text of the poem is as follows: the mountains and rivers are full of white water, and the rain is like smoke in the sound of rules. In April, there were few idle people in the countryside, and sericulture was planted in the fields.
Poetry annotation
1. Good karma: good spirits and Yuanye. Bai manchuan: refers to the water color that reflects the skylight in rice fields. Chuan: Flat land. 2. Sub-rule: bird name, cuckoo. 3. Only: Just finished. Sericulture: planting mulberry and sericulture. Transplanting: Transplanting.
Poetry translation
The fields on the hillside are lush with vegetation, and the water color in the rice fields reflects the skylight. The sky is misty and rainy, cuckoos are crying, and the earth is thriving.
April has arrived, and no one is idle. Just after sericulture, it is necessary to transplant rice seedlings again.
In April in the south of the Yangtze River, the hillside is green, Yuan Ye is green, and green trees, grass and seedlings are displayed in front of the poet, which is a world dominated by green. In the green Yuan Ye, rivers and canals crisscross, and the roads are full, flowing and white; Paddy fields filled with water are also white. Looking up, the green fields and the white water are all shrouded in faint smoke. In fact, it is not fog, but drizzle. From time to time, there are several cuckoo calls coming from trees and the air. The first two sentences of the poem describe the scenery of Jiangnan in early summer, with broad vision and delicate brushwork; Bright colors and hazy artistic conception; Dynamic and static combination, vivid and colorful. In the sound of the rules, it rained like smoke, and the drizzle like smoke seemed to be called by the rules, which was particularly full of realm.
In April, there were few idle people in the countryside, and sericulture was planted in the fields. The last two sentences are about busy farming in early summer in Jiangnan. Mulberry picking, sericulture and transplanting are two major agricultural activities related to food and clothing. April is the busy farming season, and every household is very busy. Don't take the last sentence of the poem too seriously, thinking that every family picks mulberry to feed silkworms first, and some people transport seedlings and some transplant them; Some people put silkworms into the field first, some people put silkworms into the field first, some people are only busy with one of them, and many people have to do something else. Only sericulture is planted in the field, which is just to simplify the complex and outline the busy atmosphere of rural farmers in April. As for not directly saying that people are too busy, but that there are few idle people, it is deliberately euphemistic and soothing, in order to maintain a leisurely tolerance in people's busy tension, which is in harmony with the watercolor-style hazy colors described in the first two scenes.
The whole poem is concise and vivid in language, natural in style and full of life breath, which expresses the author's praise for the hard work of farmers.