Translation:
Say it's a flower, not a flower, say it's fog, not fog.
Come at midnight and leave at dawn.
It seems like a short and beautiful spring dream when you come?
Gone like a morning cloud, nowhere to be found.
Appreciate:
This poem is all argot, and the theme is to chant official prostitutes. At that time, there were a certain number of prostitutes at all levels of government, driven by corrupt bureaucrats. The first sentence "flowers are not flowers" means that official prostitutes are like flowers, but they are not real flowers. The word "fog" in the second sentence "fog is not fog" is a pun. Using "fog" as "martial arts" and "martial women" are female stars. Because the official prostitute is a woman, she should go to the guest house, but it is not in a fog. "Come at midnight and leave at dawn" is not only a singer, but also a singer. It means pun, but it's mainly about people. Official prostitutes are different from ordinary prostitutes and even more different from formal wives. They are interdependent with bureaucrats, but they are very close. They can only come at night and leave tomorrow, which can be said to be short and long. So how long have the last two sentences sounded like spring dreams? Leave like a sigh in the clouds. The last sentence will be short, but not too long. Among them, the description of "dream" and "cloud" is based on the allusions about the dream meeting between the king of Chu and the goddess of Wushan in Song Yu's Gao and Goddess Fu. Because of the clever use of language and writing, the love between men and women is implicit and poetic.
Creative background:
There are two mourning poems in Bai's Changqing Collection: Mother's Tomb and Bamboo Slips Poetry. This poem "Flowers Are Not Flowers" is the same volume as the above two poems, which was later compiled. The poem "Flowers Are Not Flowers" was written for the same purpose at about the same time as the poem "Bamboo Slips". According to poetry, the past is beautiful, just like a dream, no more sighs.