The whole poem is as follows: three or two peach blossoms outside the bamboo, duck prophets in spring water heating. The beach is covered with wormwood, asparagus is beginning to sprout, and puffer fish are preparing to swim upstream from the sea back to the river.
Literal meaning of the poem: two or three peach blossoms bloom outside the bamboo forest, and ducks swim in the water. They first noticed the warming of the river in early spring. The beach is covered with Artemisia selengensis, even the reeds are sprouting, and the puffer fish is about to swim back into the river from the sea.
Appreciation of the whole poem:
The first sentence of the poem "There are three or two peach blossoms outside the bamboo". Looking across the sparse bamboo, several peach blossoms are swaying. Peach blossoms and bamboo are in contrast, red and green, and spring is particularly charming. Although this is just a simple sentence, it reveals a lot of information. First of all, the bamboo forest is sparse. If it's sunny, you won't see peach blossoms. Secondly, show the season and point out the word "early". Just after the cold spring, it is not the time for peach blossoms to bloom, but the infinite vitality and potential of spring have been revealed.
The second sentence of the poem, "Duck Prophet of Spring River Plumbing", has a vision from far to near, that is, from the river bank to the river surface. Spring water is rippling on the river, and active ducks are playing on the river. The silhouette of "Duck Prophet" shows that the spring water is still slightly chilly, so other animals are not sensitive to the arrival of spring, which echoes the peach blossom "three or two branches" in the first sentence and indicates the early spring season.
There are three or four sentences in the poem: "Artemisia is full of reeds and short buds, which is the time when the puffer fish wants to go up." These two sentences are closely related to Early Spring. Artemisia selengensis and dwarf reed buds are yellow and green, gorgeous and charming, showing a scene of spring and prosperity. The puffer fish wants to go up, which makes use of the characteristic that puffer fish only go upstream when the spring river warms up, and further highlights the word "spring". This is something that is not in the picture, and it is difficult to reach with a brush, but the poet successfully "looks like the present" and injects the breath and vitality of spring into the whole picture. Although the picture does not describe the action of the puffer fish, the poet knows that "the puffer fish is eager to go up" from the crazy growth of Artemisia selengensis and the germination of reeds, thus drawing the image of dolphins going up along the river in the Chunjiang River, supplementing the reality with imaginary reality. It is through this kind of pen and ink that Su Shi transformed the silent and still picture into a lively poetic scene. In Su Shi's eyes, this painting is no longer a plane static picture on paper in the frame, but gives people a profound experience and subtle observation of ecology.