Along the River for Flowers Alone I
- Poetry of Du Fu
Eastward by riverside tower the waters flow;
Spring, lazy and weary, leans on breeze soft and slow.
A cluster of peach blossoms run riot, no master nigh.
Which do you prefer, tell me, the deep or the shy?
This work serves as the prologue to the series of seven poems titled Along the River for Flowers Alone. It was composed in the spring of 762 CE, the first year of the Baoying era under Emperor Daizong, while Du Fu was residing in his thatched cottage by the Huanhua Stream in Chengdu. Having endured a long period of warfare and displacement, the poet had found a temporary respite here. Though his life at the cottage was modest, it offered relative peace. However, the loss of old friends, the scarcity of kindred spirits, the shadow of a glorious age that was no more, and the loneliness of his own advancing years persistently haunted him. This poem, using the seemingly paradoxical emotion of being "vexed by the blossoms" as its point of departure, initiates a profound dialogue with spring, with the flowers, and with solitude itself, setting the tone of complex feeling and deep resonance for the entire series.
黄师塔前江水东，春光懒困倚微风。
桃花一簇开无主，可爱深红爱浅红？
- Why Chinese poems is so special?
- The most distinctive features of Chinese poetry are: concision- many poems are only four lines, and few are much longer than eight; ambiguity- number, tense and parts of speech are often undetermined, creating particularly rich interpretative possibilities; and structure- most poems follow quite strict formal patterns which have beauty in themselves as well as highlighting meaningful contrasts.
- How to read a Chinese poem?
- Like an English poem, but more so. Everything is there for a reason, so try to find that reason. Think about all the possible connotations, and be aware of the different possibilities of number and tense. Look for contrasts: within lines, between the lines of each couplet and between successive couplets. Above all, don't worry about what the poet meant- find your meaning.