Selected Poems of Du Fu Happy Rain on a Spring Night Du Fu Series: Selected Poems of Du Fu | Collected Poems of Du Fu Selected Poems of Du Fu Happy Rain on a Spring Night
Original text A good rain knows the season, and spring will happen1. Sneak into the night with the wind, moistening things silently 2. The wild paths are all dark with clouds, but the fire on the river boats is only bright. Look at the red and wet place at dawn, the flowers are heavy in Jinguancheng 4.
Notes 1 Spring is when rain is needed, and it starts to rain. This describes the poet's joy. Nai: Just happen, it happens, here it refers to the growth of all things. 2 These two sentences belong to the flowing water couplet, describing the way the spring rain falls silently and nourishes all things. One characteristic of good rain is drizzle, because drizzle can fully nourish everything. Sneaking into the night: refers to the arrival of drizzle without being noticed by people. Moisturizing things silently, writing about the calmness and serenity of good rain. 3 These two sentences are written from the beginning of the clouds, showing that the rain is heavy and full of joy. Huo Duming is just to set off Yun Juhei. Trail: a trail in the wilderness. 4 Let’s go and see it early tomorrow morning! The entire Jinguan City is "red and wet", with bright red and heavy flowers forming a sea of ??flowers. Flower weight: The flowers appear plump and heavy due to the rain. Jinguancheng is another name for Chengdu.
Translation Spring rain is considerate and knows the season. When plants are in urgent need of water for growth, it floats in with the warm spring breeze at night, quietly nourishing all things. It was pitch dark everywhere in the wild, but the fishing fires on the river boats were particularly bright. At dawn, look at the flowers that were wet by the rain. They are beautiful and red, making Jinguan City a colorful spring color.
Appreciation This poem was written in the spring of the second year of the Yuan Dynasty (761) by Su Zong, when Du Fu lived in a thatched cottage in Chengdu. The poem describes the scenery in the rain on a spring night and expresses the poet's joyful mood. The poem opens by saying that the spring rain "knows" the season like a human being, arriving in time when all things need it, stimulating the vitality of all things. Here the poet uses personification to give the spring rain human life and emotion. Therefore, the poet uses the word "good" to praise the timeliness of the spring rain, and his joy is reflected from this. The couplet on the jaw describes the process of spring rain "moistening things". The combination of "diving into the night" and "quietly" not only shows that the spring rain comes with the wind, but also shows that the reason why it comes quietly at night when people are sleeping soundly is only to "moisten things" and not to seek "good things". For the poet, the longer the spring rain is so timely and good, the better, but he doesn’t know when it will suddenly stop, so he is also a little worried in his joy. Looking outside the door at this time, there were dark clouds in all directions, and only the fishing fires were still flickering in the river. The last sentence is the poet's imagination of the scene after the rain. After a night of "good rain", everything is growing vigorously due to the moisture of the spring rain. Let's look at the red flowers that bloomed with the rain. They are so beautiful that they have already bloomed all over Jinguan City. Here, the joy that the spring rain brings to the poet is vividly released in his imagination. The whole poem is written around the word "happy", embodying emotions in the scenery. In the delicate description, the emotions are naturally sublimated.