1. The original text of the ancient poem
"Painting"
Author: Wang Wei (Tang Dynasty)
Looking at the mountains from a distance, they have color, and hearing the water from up close silent.
Spring has gone, the flowers are still there, and the birds are not surprised when people come.
2. Vernacular Translation
You can see the green color of the mountains in the distance, but you can’t hear the sound of running water nearby. Spring has passed, but the flowers are still blooming. When people come closer, the birds on the branches remain motionless.
Extended information
The author turns a static painting into a beautiful landscape scroll through text description: green mountains, flowing water, Blooming flowers, singing birds, a vivid scene, lead readers into infinite reverie. When the reader returns to reality from his reverie, he realizes that everything in the painting is just a lifeless still life.
The mountains in the distance are often blurry, but the mountains in the painting are very clear. If you listen to the running water nearby, you should hear the sound of water, but the running water in the painting is silent. Flowers that bloom in spring will wither as spring passes. The flowers in the painting are in full bloom no matter what season they are in. If a person approaches a bird sitting on a branch, it will be frightened and fly away. But the bird in the painting will not fly away even if you get close. When you read it all, it seems that everything goes against the laws of nature. In fact, it is a secret mystery that creates the characteristics of the painting.
The distant mountains are smiling, and if they are colored, they are good mountains. What is colored? Delicate and handsome, red, wet and green are the colors, cold and blue are also good colors, and strange and steep colors are also different colors. The beauty is only due to the distance, making people feel that it has infinite scenery. This is the "quiet state". The beauty of the quiet state is beyond the first sentence, and it lies in the ability of those with a calm mind to appreciate it. This is like spring and snow, driving the lower-class people out of the art space from the beginning. Disqualifies impetuous people from appreciating beauty.
Here, no impetuousness is allowed. Some are just as calm as water, but it is not stagnant water but living water. Do you think there is water in the painting? A pool of spring water pours out with unstoppable enthusiasm, and a kind of flowing beauty jumps in the eyes of the poet.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Painting (Poetry by Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty)