Pastoral Miscellany at Four Seasons
Author: Fan Chengda
Working in the fields during the day and planting hemp at night,
The children of the village are each responsible for their own affairs .
The children and grandchildren have not yet been raised for farming and weaving.
They also learn to grow melons near the mulberry tree.
Notes
1. Miscellaneous: written at random, without a fixed theme.
2. Farming: weeding.
3. Ji Ma: twist hemp into thread.
4. Everyone is in charge: Everyone has a certain job.
5. Unsolved: Don’t understand.
6. To: engage in, participate in.
Appreciation
"Pastoral Miscellany in Four Seasons" is a set of large-scale Tian family poems written by the poet after he retired to his hometown. There are sixty poems in total, describing spring, summer, and rural life in rural areas. The scenery of the four seasons of autumn and winter and the lives of farmers also reflect the exploitation suffered by farmers and the hardship of life. This is one of them, describing a scene in rural summer life.
The first sentence "I work in the fields during the day and work on hemp at night" means: I go to the fields to weed during the day and twist the hemp thread at night. "Tilting" means weeding. In early summer, the rice seedlings need to be weeded. This is what men do. "Ji Ma" means that after women finish other work during the day, they knead twine and weave it into cloth at night. This sentence directly describes the labor scene. The second sentence "Every son and daughter in the village is in charge of his own family." "Children" refers to men and women. The whole poem uses the tone of old farmers, and "children" refers to young people. "Head of the family" means that both men and women have no time to spare, and each has his or her own business. The third sentence "Children and grandchildren are not yet available for plowing and weaving." "Children and grandchildren" refers to those children. They don't know how to farm or weave, but they are not idle either. They have been influenced by it since childhood and love to work, so they "learned to grow melons near the mulberry trees", and learned to grow melons under the lush mulberry trees. This is a common phenomenon in rural areas, but it is quite unique. The conclusion expresses the innocence of rural children.
The poet uses a fresh style of writing to give a more detailed description of the tense labor atmosphere in the countryside in early summer, which is very interesting to read.