The Southland in Spring
- Poetry of Kou Zhun
The willows drooping low, the waters of yearning vast,
The village lonely, far and wide the grass extends.
At sunset apricot flowers fall thick and fast.
Spring over in the south, my heart grief o'er separation rends.
Duckweed all o'er Tingzhou, would he return ere my bloom spends?
This poem is a lyric poem written by Kou Zhun, a prominent statesman of the Song Dynasty. The first four lines of the poem depict scenery, using the landscape to convey emotion, while the final two lines directly express the theme of lamenting spring and longing for a beloved. With its elegant, graceful, and tenderly sentimental tone, the poem begins with imagery and concludes with emotion, seamlessly blending scene and feeling to subtly convey the poet’s reflections on the passage of time, akin to the fading beauty of youth.
波渺渺，柳依依，
孤村芳草远，
斜日杏花飞。
江南春尽离肠断，
蘋满汀洲人未归。
- 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.
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