The willow wind does not blow cold on my face, a poem from "Queju". The author is Shi Zhinan, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty.
My clothes are wet, the apricot blossoms are not cold when the rain blows, but the willow wind blows my face
quatrains
Song Dynasty·Zhinan
The ancient wood is in the shade (jì)Short canopy,
The staff and quinoa (lí) helped me cross the east bridge.
The apricot blossom rain makes your clothes wet, and the willow wind blows on your face without chilling it.
Translation 1
Under the shade of the towering old trees, I tied up a canopy boat, leaning on a crutch made of quinoa, and slowly walked across the bridge and headed east. . In the spring of March, the apricot blossoms were in bloom, and the drizzle kept coming as if it was deliberately trying to wet my clothes; the gentle wind blowing on people's faces and the warm breeze with the fresh breath of willows made me feel relaxed and happy. [2]
Translation 2
I tied the boat in the deep shade of the towering old trees, and I carried a walking stick made of quinoa, which supported me to the east of the bridge. In February, when the apricot blossoms were blooming, the drizzle soaked my clothes, making them seem wet but not wet. The wind that blew the willows gently blew on my face, without the slightest chill. [1]
Notes edit edit
Short canopy - a small boat with a canopy.
Crutch (lí) - a crutch made of quinoa. Quinoa, plant name. As if it were a playmate you could rely on.
Apricot blossom rain - the rain when apricot blossoms are in full bloom before and after the Qingming Festival.
Willow Wind - The ancients called the wind that comes during the flowering period called flower trade wind. From Xiaohan to Guyu, there are twenty-four seasons. Each season corresponds to a kind of flower trade wind, collectively called "Twenty-Four Flowers". Trade winds”. Among them, the flower letter at the end of Qingming Festival is willow flowers, and the wind at this time is called willow flower wind, or willow wind. [2] Here it is extended to spring breeze
Poetry Appreciation Editor
This beautiful little poem describes the poet's joy of spring outing with a stick in the breeze and drizzle. The poet is leaning on a stick for a spring outing, but he says "the stick helps me", which personifies the stick, as if it is a companion that can be relied on. The scenery on the east side of the bridge and the west of the bridge may not be very different, but for the poet on the spring outing , east to west, the artistic conception and taste are quite different. "Apricot blossom rain", the rain in early spring, "Willow wind", the wind in early spring. This is more beautiful and picturesque than "drizzle" and "gentle wind". The willow branches ripple with the wind, giving people the impression that the spring breeze comes from the willows. The rain in early spring is called "apricot blossom rain", which is exactly the same as calling the rain in early summer "yellow plum rain". "Listen to the spring rain in the small building all night, and sell apricot blossoms in the Ming Dynasty in the deep alleys." In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, the great poet Lu You had connected the apricot blossoms with the spring rain. "The clothes feel wet" is used to describe the drizzle in early spring, which seems to be wet but not wet. It also shows the subtlety of perception and the delicate description. Imagine the poet walking eastward with his walking stick, along the way the red apricots are scorching, the green willows are fluttering, the drizzle touches the clothes, which seems to be wet but not wet, and the gentle wind blows in the face, and there is not a hint of chill. What an impatient and pleasant spring hike! Some people can't help but think that if the old monk walks on and enjoys the tour with such enthusiasm, by the time he remembers that he should go back, he is afraid that he will be exhausted and even the quinoa staff will not be able to support him. Don't worry too much. The first line of the poem says: "A short canopy is tied in the shade of an ancient tree." Isn't the short canopy just a boat? The old monk originally came along the stream in a small boat. The boat was tied under an old tree by the stream, waiting for him to untie it and return to the temple. The monk felt rain when he walked under the old tree, so he put on his small straw hat and continued to cross the bridge to enjoy the beautiful scenery ahead in the drizzle.
Author information: Zhinan: a poet monk in the Southern Song Dynasty. Zhinan is his Buddhist name, and his life is unknown.
Zhinan's living conditions are unknown, and his presence in the literary world at that time was not as strong as that of the "Four Great Poets of Zhongxing" and "Mr. Erquan". But this short poem, with its delicate feelings and true description of early spring and February, has recorded his name in the history of poetry in the Song Dynasty.
Zhao Yu of the Song Dynasty once recorded in the volume of "Yushutang Poetry Talk": "Seng Zhinan was good at poetry, and Zhu Wengong tasted his postscript as Juan Yun: 'Nan's poetry is more than pure and beautiful, and Gree is leisurely, without the flavor of vegetable shoots. . As the saying goes: "My clothes are wet with the apricot blossom rain, and my face is not cold by the willow wind." I love you deeply. '" Zhu Xi highly appreciated his poems, and the criterion used was whether they had "bookishness", which was actually one of the issues discussed in the poetic theory of the Song Dynasty. Su Shi said in "Poetry to the Poet Monk Daotong": "The words are full of haze since ancient times. A little, the gas contains vegetable shoots to the public. "Self-note: "It means there is no sour stuffing gas. "Maybe he was the first to put forward this proposition. He commented on Sikong Tu of the Tang Dynasty: "The garden is quiet with the sound of chess, and the stone altar is high with the shadow of flags." He said: "I tried touring Wulao Peak and entered Baihe Courtyard, and the courtyard was full of pine shade. , I don’t see anyone, but I hear his voice, and then I know the meaning of this sentence. But I hate that he is frugal and has a monkish attitude. "("Shu Sikong Picture Poems") clearly expresses this tendency. His opposition to the scholarly style of monk poetry has also been approved by many poets. For example, Ye Mengde said in the volume of "Shilin Poetry": "Modern monks learn poetry There are many of them, but they all lack the spirit of transcendence and self-satisfaction, and often just copy and imitate what the scholar-bureaucrats have discarded. He also created a kind of monk style of his own, with a more ordinary rhythm, which the world calls sour and stuffy. "Examining the connotation of scholarly spirit, it probably refers to the loneliness of emotions, the frugality of state, etc. This is a state closely related to the life and spirit of monks, and is a specific "romance in the forest". It seems to have The rationality of its existence is why Hu Zai quoted from "Xiqing Poetry" in Volume 57 of "Tiaoxi Yuyincong Hua": "Dongpo Yanseng's poems should have no bookishness, and the poet Gui Jian. Nowadays, due to misunderstandings, they use Chinese language in the world network, but they don’t know that the family tradition and the atmosphere by the waterside and in the forest are indispensable.
If it completely washes away the pure charm and makes it the same as the common people, how can it be enough? "Yuan Haowen said more bluntly in the "Preface to the Mu'an Poetry Collection": "The reason why the poems of the poet monk are different from those of the poets is that they have the spirit of scholarship in their ears. "(Volume 37 of "Collected Works of Mr. Yishan") Indeed, if we admit that life is the only source of all literature and art, then there is no reason not to recognize the bookishness that best reflects the life state of the poet monk. ? What Su Shi and others said is to incorporate all poetry creation into the aesthetic taste and standards of scholar-bureaucrats, and to obliterate its due uniqueness. This is even in line with Su Shi himself's frequent expression of diversity in his poetry theory. Therefore, we would rather interpret it as his temporary remarks, because judging from some of his specific works, there is no lack of "bookishness" in this statement. Zhu Xi praised his poem for not being bookish, and he also said it from the perspective of a scholar-official. This shows that Zhinan is a versatile person in poetry creation, and monks can write good poems regardless of whether they are bookish or not.
Note: Zhu Wengong quoted a poem referring to monk Zhinan's poem "Quatrains": "A short canopy is tied in the shade of an ancient tree, and a staff and tributary help me cross the east side of the bridge. The apricot blossom rain makes your clothes wet, and the willow wind blows on your face without chilling it.
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