Your riotous hues assault the sky—
Too dazzling for close scrutiny.
Yet your faint fragrance sweeps the ground,
A scent that haunts from far around.
The spring wind, too, feels love’s sweet smart,
And breaks your bushiest branch apart,
Then sends it drifting down to me—
A torn bouquet from earth’s own tree.
浮艳侵天难就看，清香扑地只遥闻。
春风也是多情思，故拣繁枝折赠君。
This poem, part of a series composed during Han Yu's exile in Yangshan or Chaozhou (early 9th century), captures the poet's complex emotional landscape after political downfall. Written during an excursion south of the city walls, it employs floral imagery to meditate on the elusiveness of beauty and fulfillment—a subtle allegory for the scholar-official's thwarted ambitions. The work oscillates between sensory immediacy and philosophical detachment, embodying Han Yu's characteristic fusion of lyrical grace and intellectual rigor.
Classical Chinese poetry thrives on Concision and Ambiguity. Without tense or number, the words create a timeless space where the reader becomes the co-creator of the poem's meaning.
Look for Contrasts: light and shadow, movement and stillness. Don't just translate the words; feel the Yijing (artistic conception) that lingers long after the last character.
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