Two golden orioles sing amid the willows green;
A flock of white egrets fly into the blue sky.
My window frames the snow-crowned western mountain scene;
My door off says to eastward going ships "Goodbye!"
Original Poem:
「绝句四首 · 其三」
杜甫
两个黄鹂鸣翠柳，一行白鹭上青天。
窗含西岭千秋雪，门泊东吴万里船。
Interpretation:
This is one of Du Fu's poems about scenery. The whole poem seems to be one sentence and one scene, which is actually a picture of spring returning to a thriving city. On such a beautiful spring day, Du Fu was in a particularly good mood, and faced with the vibrant scene, he could not help but write this ancient masterpiece.
The first two lines: a pair of oriole on the tender green willow branches in the joyful singing, distant blue sky on a line of egrets in the free flight.
The scene is pleasant and colorful. The willow branches have just sprouted young leaves in early spring. The birds are in pairs. “The heron, a long-legged bird, flies beautifully and naturally in a line, its white feathers in the blue sky, the colors are extremely vivid. Yellow, emerald, white, green four colors in the joint at the same time, organized into a colorful painting, while the oriole's song conveys the feelings of incomparable joy.
The last two lines: looking out of the window, the thousand years of snow on the western mountain range are vividly visible; glancing out of the door again, the ten thousand miles of ships from Dongwu in the distance are moored at the riverside.
The Xiling Mountain west of Chengdu has accumulated the “snow of a thousand years” because the snow on the mountain never melts all year round. The snowy western mountains from Chengdu cannot be seen in bad weather. However, Du Fu saw it, which means that the weather was very sunny and the air was very fresh on this spring day. The beauty of such a rare sight, Dufu's mood of relief is self-evident.
Because in Du Fu's time of war, the transportation was often blocked by wars, and the line could not be “10,000-mile ship”, and now he could see the “10,000-mile ship” coming from Dongwu, which means that the war was pacified, the transportation was restored, and he was expected to go back to his hometown, so how could it not make people feel joyful?
The four lines of the poem are independent of each other and form a unified mood, which completely expresses Du Fu's complex and subtle inner activities and homesickness at this time.
Poem translator:
Xu Yuan-chong (许渊冲)
About the poet:
Du Fu (杜甫), 712 - 770 AD, was a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, known as the "Sage of Poetry". Born into a declining bureaucratic family, Du Fu had a rough life, and his turbulent and dislocated life made him keenly aware of the plight of the masses. Therefore, his poems were always closely related to the current affairs, reflecting the social life of that era in a more comprehensive way, with profound thoughts and a broad realm. In his poetic art, he was able to combine many styles, forming a unique style of "profound and thick", and becoming a great realist poet in the history of China.
