Original text and translation of the ancient poem "Early Plum"

Author: Zhang Wei

A tree with cold plum and white jade belt is near the village road and creek bridge.

I don't know if I started spraying water recently, but I suspect it didn't sell after the winter snow.

To annotate ...

(1) Jiong: Far.

(2) Next to: nearby.

(3) hair: open.

(4) sales: through "elimination", melting.

translate

There is a plum tree with cold ling and white branches like jade.

It is far from the village road where people come and go, and close to the bridge.

People don't know that cold plum blooms by the stream.

Thought it was snow that didn't melt after winter.

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Since ancient times, there have been many excellent poems with plum blossom as the theme. Some people have the charm of Yongmei, while others praise the charm of plum blossoms. This poem by Yongmei focuses on the word "early".

The first sentence not only describes the whiteness of cold plum, but also takes care of the word "cold". Cold ling wrote Chu Mei alone. The second sentence writes that this plum tree is far away from the village roads where people come and go, and close to the stream bridge. A word "Jiong" and a word "beside" describe the unique environment of "one tree is cold and plum". This sentence is a link between the preceding and the following, and it is a necessary transition for the development of the whole poem. The word "Xiqiao" leads to the next sentence. In the third sentence, it is said that a cold plum grows early because it is "near water"; In response to the first sentence, the fourth sentence is that the poet suspects that the cold plum is the snow that has not disappeared since winter. A sentence of "I don't know" and a sentence of "suspected yes" make the poet's vision seem like snow. Finally, I looked intently and found it was a cold plum tree that grew near the water. The poet's doubts have been eliminated, and the "early" of Zaomei has also been pointed out.

Mei and Xue often form an indissoluble bond in the poet's works. For example, Xu Hun's poem "Early Plum" says: "A tree is plain with snow", which describes plum blossoms as snow, while Zhang Wei's poem suspects plum blossoms as snow with different intentions. For cold plum blossom hair, all kinds of jade are like snow, and many poets have had similar illusions of doubt. In the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi wrote a poem: "It is not snow that is far away, but because of the fragrance", which is also suspected to be the head of snow. Only when the faint fragrance strikes, do you know that it is plum, not snow, which is similar to this artistic conception. Zhang Wei's poems, however, started from the plum blossom that is as jade as snow, and started from the water, and wrote the shape and spirit of the early plum blossom, as well as the cognitive process of the poet's exploration and search. Through the surface, I wrote the spiritual harmony between the poet and Han Mei. Readers can appreciate the leisurely charm and infinite meaning of poetry by alternating turns and taking care of the beginning and end.