English Rendering
After Zhang Zhifu's lyric on willow catkins,using the same rhym-ing words.
They seem to be and not to be flowers,
None pity them when they fall in showers.
Deserting home,
By the roadside they roam;
I think they have no feeling to impart,
But they must have thoughts deep.
Grief numbs their tender heart,
Their wistful eyes heavy with sleep,About to open,yet closed again.
They dream of going with the wind for long,
Long miles to find a tender-hearted man,
But are aroused by the orioles'song.
I do not grieve willow catkins have flown away,
But that in Western Garden the fallen red
Cannot be gathered.When dawns the day
And rain is o'er,we cannot find their traces
But a pond with broken duckweeds o'erspread.
Of spring's three graces,
Two have gone with the roadside dust,
And one with the waves.If you just
Take a close look,you will never
Find catkins but tears of those who sever,
Which drop by drop
Fall without stop.
