Don’t you suffer from the cold? Pines and cypresses have their own nature!
Original text:
Given to my younger brother
Liu Zhen
There are pines on Tingting Mountain, and there is a stroke in Sese Valley.
How strong the sound of the wind is, how strong the pine branches are!
The frost is miserable, but the whole year is always upright.
Don’t you suffer from the cold? Pines and cypresses have their own nature!
Notes:
1. Tingting: a towering appearance.
2. Sese: describes the sound of wind.
3. Yihe: So.
4. Miserable: harsh and harsh.
5. The two sentences "Aren't they suffering from (lí) condensation cold? Pines and cypresses have their own nature" mean, haven't pines and cypresses been invaded by the severe cold? (But it is still as green as ever,) This is determined by its nature.
6. Nature: inherent quality or personality.
Translation:
The tall and tall pine trees on the mountains stand against the howling wind in the valley.
The wind is so fierce, and the pine branches are so strong!
No matter how miserable the sky is with frost, the pine tree’s waist will remain straight all year round.
Could it be that the pine trees did not experience the severe chill? No, it’s because pines and cypresses are born with a cold-resistant nature!
Poetry Appreciation and Introduction to the Author
Poetry Appreciation:
The use of "pines and cypresses have their own nature" here is actually a kind of "Bede" theory. The so-called "Bide" is to use natural things to metaphor people's moral realm, thereby further arousing people's self-improvement of their personality realm.
Scholar-officials in ancient China liked to use pine, bamboo, plum and chrysanthemum to describe personality. Here, Liu Zhen used pines and cypresses as metaphors to encourage his cousin to be steadfast and self-reliant, not to change his nature due to external pressure, and called on people to have a firm pursuit of personality when they are in troubled times.
About the author:
Liu Zhen (? - 217), named Gonggan, was born in Ningyang, Dongping (now Gucheng Village, Siden Town, Ningyang County, Shandong Province). A famous scholar and poet in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, he was one of the "Seven Sons of Jian'an" and the grandson of Shangshu Ling Liu Liang. Liu Zhen was erudite and talented, alert and quick in argumentation. He was selected as a vassal of the prime minister (Cao Cao) and made friends with Emperor Wen of Wei and Cao Zhi.
When attending Cao Pi's banquet, he looked at Princess Zhen with equal eyes and was punished with hard labor for the crime of disrespect and was assigned as a minor official. In the twenty-second year of Jian'an (217), he contracted an illness and died at the age of thirty-eight. His literary achievements were mainly reflected in the creation of poetry, especially five-character poems. He was famous at the time, and was called "Cao Liu" along with Cao Zhi.