The ground is full of mugwort and reed buds are short, which is when puffer fish are about to come.

"Evening View of the Spring River in Huichong"

Su Shi, Song Dynasty

Original text:

Three or two peach blossoms outside the bamboo are a prophet of the warmth of the spring river.

The ground is full of mugwort and reed buds are short, which is when puffer fish are about to come.

Translation:

Two or three peach blossoms are blooming outside the bamboo forest. Ducks are playing in the water. They are the first to notice the warming of the river in early spring. The river beach is already full of mugwort, the reeds are beginning to sprout, and the pufferfish are about to swim upstream from the sea to the river.

Extended information:

The first line of the poem is "Three or two peach blossoms outside the bamboo". Looking across the sparse green bamboo, a few peach blossoms are swaying. The peach and bamboo contrast with each other, and the red and green set off the scenery. The spring atmosphere is particularly lovely. Although this is just a simple sentence, it reveals a lot of information. First of all, it shows the sparseness of the bamboo forest. If it were dense, the peach blossoms would not be visible. Secondly, it indicates the season and highlights the word "early". The spring cold has just passed, and it is not the time for the peach blossoms to bloom yet, but the infinite vitality and potential of spring have already been revealed.

The second sentence of the poem, "The duck prophet sees the water warm in the spring river", looks from far to near, that is, from the river bank to the surface of the river. The spring water on the river is rippling, and the restless ducks are playing in the river. The "Duck Prophet" side explains that the spring river water is still slightly chilly, so other animals are not yet sensitive to the coming of spring. This echoes the "three or two branches" of peach blossoms in the first sentence, indicating the early spring season.

"The duck knows the warmth of the water" is something that appeals to feelings and imagination. It is difficult to convey it in pictures, but the poet expresses it in his poems through his experience of putting himself in his shoes. The ducks playing freely in the river are the first to feel the rising temperature of the spring water, and use the tactile impression of "warmth" to supplement the visual impression of the spring water in the painting.

The reason why ducks can "predict the warmth of the spring river" is because they live in the water all year round. As long as the river is not frozen, they will always jump into the water to play. Therefore, the first people to know about the changes in the water temperature of the Spring River are naturally these ducks, which are closely related to the water. This means that everything must be experienced personally to have a true feeling.

This poem not only reflects the poet's meticulous observation of nature, but also embodies the poet's philosophical thinking about life. A duck can tell when a river is warm in spring when it goes into the water, which is comparable to the saying that "a fallen leaf can tell the world is in autumn".

The third and fourth lines of the poem: "The ground is full of wormwood and the reed buds are short, it is the time when the pufferfish is about to come up." These two lines of the poem still closely describe "early spring". The ground is full of wormwood and wormwood. , short reed buds, yellow and green, gorgeous and charming, presenting a scene of spring and prosperity.

"The pufferfish wants to go up" uses the characteristic that pufferfish only go upstream when the water in the spring river is warm, further highlighting the word "spring", which is originally missing from the picture and difficult to reach with a brush, but the poet successfully succeeded "The scene that is difficult to describe seems to be present now", injecting the breath of spring and the vitality of life into the whole picture.

Although the picture does not describe the movements of the puffer fish, the poet inferred from the bushes of wormwood and reed sprouts that "the puffer fish wants to come up", so he painted the image of the dolphins moving up the river when the spring river flooded. The imaginary virtual world complements the real world. Su Shi used this kind of pen and ink to transform silent and static pictures into a sound and moving poetic realm.

In Su Shi's eyes, this painting is no longer a flat, static picture on paper within the frame, but gives people a sense of ecology with its deep inner experience and subtle and delicate observation. The former is picturesque, while the latter is realistic. The two are confused, and I don't know which is the painting and which is the real scene. The poet's artistic association broadens the world beyond the visual expression of painting, and perfectly combines poetry and painting.