Song Dynasty Li Qingzhao "Partridge Sky - Osmanthus" original:

Dark and light yellow body soft, love sparse traces of distant only incense to stay. The first of these is the first of its kind in the world.

May be jealous, chrysanthemum should be shy, the painting of the opening of the crown in the fall. The first thing you need to do is to get a good look at the color of the flowers, and then you can see the color of the flowers.

Translation: This flower is light yellow and quiet, meek and shy in appearance. It's not a very good idea to keep it away from the rest of the world, but it has a strong fragrance that lingers on for a long time. There is no need to use light green or red color to show off, it is the first class of flowers.

The plum blossom must be jealous of it, and it is enough to make the late-blooming chrysanthemums feel shy. In gardens with magnificent fences, it has no equal among the seasonal flowers of mid-autumn. The great poet Qu Yuan, ah, can really be called merciless, in the "Li Sao" written about many flowers and trees, why rock laurel is not collected?

Background

This poem was written in 1101 A.D., when the author was living in Qingzhou with her husband, Zhao Mingcheng. After the death of her father-in-law, Zhao Tingzhi, Li Qingzhao had been living in the countryside with her husband for about a year due to the involvement of the party dispute at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. They studied and forgot about fame, enjoyed themselves and were far from profit, both of them indulging in the beautiful and harmonious world of art. It was against this background that this poem was composed.

This lyric "Partridge Sky" is a piece of work praising osmanthus flowers. In Li Qingzhao's words, there are many works about flowers, but this is the only one that honors a certain flower as the first-class. It was written when the author was living in Qingzhou with her husband, along with the poem Spreading Raccoon Stream Sand.

The reason why the author respected osmanthus as the first-class flowers is that she paid great attention to the inner beauty of osmanthus, and appreciated the light color and flavor of osmanthus, and the gentle nature of osmanthus.