Meaning: A drizzle brought a lot of chill, but no frost. The leaves on the trees in front of the courtyard are already half green and half yellow.

Source: "Two Poems on the Beginning of Winter" by Qiu Yuan of the Song Dynasty

Full poem:

The drizzle makes it cold but there is no frost, and the leaves in front of the garden are half Green and yellow.

Little spring has been gone for only a few days, and the fragrance of plum blossoms is blooming somewhere.

Translation:

A drizzle brought a lot of chill, but did not form frost; the leaves on the trees in front of the courtyard were already half green and half yellow.

Xiaochun is still some time away from now, where does the fragrance of plum blossoms come from?

Extended information

Appreciation of "Two Poems on the Beginning of Winter":

At the beginning of winter, it is usually accompanied by the biting cold wind and drizzle. . It’s half a month since the frost season, and there will be a layer of frost on the ground every morning. But if it rains, the frost and snow will melt away, and the weather will become even colder. Therefore, the poet wrote in the first sentence, "The drizzle brings coldness before there is frost."

The leaves of the willow trees in the courtyard, which are not cold-tolerant, have long been blown off by the autumn wind. On the crowns of several poplar trees, half-green and half-yellow leaves were sparsely hung, swaying in the cold wind. "The leaves in front of the court are half green and yellow", this sentence further brings out the desolate scene of autumn coming to the east.

Although it is the beginning of winter, from a meteorological point of view, it is not yet winter in the true sense. On a sunny afternoon, sometimes it is still very warm, and people will feel the warmth like "Little Indian Spring". People don't feel hot when they put on cotton-padded clothes in the morning and evening, but at noon, because the temperature is still relatively high, they have to take off their cotton-padded clothes. Therefore, the poet lamented that "Xiaochun will not be gone for many days".

The autumn wind blows the leaves and the flowers wither. At this season, all the red flowers and green grass outdoors have already withered and withered. Only plum blossoms that are not afraid of the cold bloom alone and stand out from the crowd. "Plum blossoms fill the sky with joy and snow." Even if there is heavy snowfall in the sky, it will bloom with a fire-like color in a white world. No matter in the corner or in the courtyard, the cold wind will send people a faint fragrance. "Where are the plum blossoms blooming?" The poet uses "where" to leave people with endless space for imagination.