Hui Chong Chunjiang Night Scene
Su Shi in Song Dynasty
Original text:
Two or three peach blossoms outside the bamboo forest and ducks in the water first noticed the warm spring.
The beach is covered with wormwood, asparagus is beginning to sprout, and puffer fish are preparing to swim upstream from the sea back to the river.
Translation:
Two or three peach blossoms are blooming outside the bamboo forest, and ducks are swimming in the water. They first noticed the warming of the river in early spring. The beach has been covered with Artemisia selengensis, reeds have begun to sprout, and puffer fish are about to swim from the sea to the river.
Extended data:
The first sentence of the poem "There are three or two peach blossoms outside the bamboo". Looking across the sparse bamboo, several peach blossoms are swaying. Peach blossoms and bamboo are in contrast, red and green, and spring is particularly charming. Although this is just a simple sentence, it reveals a lot of information. First of all, the bamboo forest is sparse. If it's sunny, you won't see peach blossoms. Secondly, show the season and point out the word "early". Just after the cold spring, it is not the time for peach blossoms to bloom, but the infinite vitality and potential of spring have been revealed.
The second sentence of the poem, "Duck Prophet of Spring River Plumbing", has a vision from far to near, that is, from the river bank to the river surface. Spring water is rippling on the river, and active ducks are playing on the river. The silhouette of "Duck Prophet" shows that the spring water is still slightly chilly, so other animals are not sensitive to the arrival of spring, which echoes the peach blossom "three or two branches" in the first sentence and indicates the early spring season.
"A duck knows how to warm water", which appeals to emotion and imagination, is difficult to convey in the picture, but the poet expresses this point in his poems by putting himself in others' shoes. Ducks swimming freely in the river are the first to feel the temperature rise of the spring water, and use the "warm" touch to supplement the visual impression of the spring water in the painting.
Ducks can "predict the heating of springs" because they live in water all the year round. As long as the river doesn't freeze, they always jump into the water to play. Therefore, it is these ducks, which are closely related to water, who are the first to know the water temperature changes in the Chunjiang River. This shows that you have to go through everything to have a true feeling.
This poem not only reflects the poet's careful observation of nature, but also reflects the poet's philosophical thinking about life. Ducks know that the spring river is warm when they enter the water, which can be compared with "a leaf falls, and the world is autumn". It is reasonable to know each other.
There are three or four sentences in the poem: "Artemisia is full of reeds and short buds, which is the time when the puffer fish wants to go up." These two sentences are closely related to Early Spring. Artemisia selengensis and dwarf reed buds are yellow and green, gorgeous and charming, showing a scene of spring and prosperity.
The puffer fish wants to go up, which makes use of the characteristic that puffer fish only go upstream when the spring river warms up, and further highlights the word "spring". This is something that is not in the picture, and it is difficult to reach with a brush, but the poet successfully "looks like the present" and injects the breath and vitality of spring into the whole picture.
Although the picture does not describe the action of the puffer fish, the poet knows that "the puffer fish is eager to go up" from the crazy growth of Artemisia selengensis and the germination of reeds, thus drawing the image of dolphins going up along the river in the Chunjiang River, supplementing the reality with imaginary reality. It is through this kind of pen and ink that Su Shi transformed the silent and still picture into a lively poetic scene.
In Su Shi's eyes, this painting is no longer a plane static picture on paper in the frame, but gives people a profound experience and subtle observation of ecology. The former is picturesque and the latter is realistic, and the two are confused. I don't know which is the picturesque scene and which is the real scene. The poet's artistic association broadens the world beyond the field of vision expressed by painting, and makes poetry and painting combine perfectly.