The poem "Children rush to chase yellow butterflies, flying into cauliflower and nowhere to be found" depicts the scene of children playing and chasing butterflies in the countryside. The child ran quickly to catch up with the yellow butterfly, but the butterfly suddenly flew into the cauliflower bush and was never found again. Scenes like this can be seen everywhere in the countryside. The natural scenery in the countryside is very beautiful, and people live a comfortable and leisurely life.
This poem comes from "Xugong Store, Suxin City" by Yang Wanli in the Song Dynasty. The main writer passed through Xinshi during his trip and stayed in an inn opened by a person named Xu. The beautiful scenery of the countryside and the scenes of children playing deeply attracted him and triggered his poetry.
Full text
The hedgerows are sparse and one foot deep, and the new green at the top of the trees has not yet become shade. The children hurriedly chased the yellow butterfly, which flew into the cauliflower and was nowhere to be found.
Translation
Beside the sparse fence, a path leads into the distance. The petals on the trees beside the road are falling one after another, and the new leaves have just grown and have not yet formed a shade. The child ran to chase the yellow butterfly, but the butterfly flew into the cauliflower bush and was nowhere to be found.
Word understanding:
The sentence uses the action descriptions of "hurrying" and "chasing" to vividly describe children's innocent, lively, cute and curious characteristics, and also It laid the foundation for the following article "Flying into the cauliflower and finding nowhere".
Notes
New city: place name. Today's Xinshi Town, Deqing County, Zhejiang Province, is said to be northeast of Jingshan County, Hubei Province today, northeast of You County, Hunan Province, and fifty miles east of Dangtu County (now part of Ma'anshan, Anhui Province).
Xugongdian: The name of the hotel opened by a family named Xu.
Gong: the honorific title given to men in ancient times.
Fence: Fence.
Sparse: sparse.
Path: path.
Yin: The shade formed by the lush and dense leaves.
Quickly walk: run. To walk means to run.
Creative background:
This is the second poem in the series. This set of poems was written in the third year of Shaoxi reign of Emperor Guangzong of the Song Dynasty (1192 AD). At that time, Yang Wanli was serving as the deputy envoy to Jiangdong, and his post was in Jiankang (now Nanjing, Jiangsu). The "new city" in the title of the poem was a town at that time, located in the northeast of today's Deqing, Zhejiang, between Lin'an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang) and Jiankang.
This place is surrounded by water and land, and is easily accessible by boat and vehicle. It is the only place the author must pass when he leaves Lin'an for Jiankang to take up his post, or returns from Jiankang to Lin'an to report on his work. The author passed by here, stopped briefly, stayed for a short period of time, saw the scenery and felt emotional, so he wrote this set of poems.
Appreciation:
In the whole poem, the poet did not use gorgeous words, but wrote about the beauty of the late spring in the countryside and the innocence and liveliness of children in just a few words. "Hurrying away" and "nowhere to find", just a few words describe the seriousness and cuteness of a child chasing butterflies. The poet here uses the writing technique of line drawing. Without too many modifiers, the characters are vividly portrayed in simple language.
The first sentence and the second sentence are purely static descriptions of scenery. The broad fence contrasts with the narrow path, and the sparse contrast with the long and long path contrasts with each other, highlighting the freshness and tranquility of the countryside. By the roadside, the peach and plum blossoms on the branches have fallen, but the leaves have not yet grown densely, showing the natural and simple style of the countryside.
The third sentence is a dynamic description of the characters. The combination of "hurrying" and "chasing", the scene of children flapping with their hands and stumbling to chase butterflies, reflects the innocence and liveliness of children.
The fourth sentence, the cauliflower is yellow and lush. A small butterfly flies into this yellow ocean and is naturally nowhere to be found. Readers can imagine the anxious state of the children looking around, searching everywhere, and the disappointment of not being able to find anything, etc., which further shows the innocence and childishness of the children.