White lotus blooms are often outweighed by red flowers;
They'd rather be transplanted before lunar bowers.
Heartless they seem, but they have deep grief no one knows.
See them fall in moonlight when the morning wind blows.
Original Poem:
「白莲」
陆龟蒙
素蘤多蒙别艳欺，此花端合在瑶池。
无情有恨何人觉，月晓风清欲堕时。
Interpretation:
This poem describes the white lotus withering away without people's knowledge, and satirizes the fact that people who are clean and honest are always neglected and sidelined in the dark feudal society, and can only be buried in obscurity.
The first two sentences: the elegant flower often has to be deceived by the colorful flower, and the white lotus flower should always grow in the Yao Chi.
In the beginning, it is written that there are many people who despise and even disdain the plain flowers, but prefer the gaudy ones. This is also the case in the upper class of the feudal society, where some simple and unsophisticated people who are not good at expressing themselves are often neglected, buried and bullied, while some flashy guys are often appreciated and reused by the feudal rulers. This line of the poem clearly points to this unreasonable social phenomenon.
It is even more obvious in the second line of the poem. Yaochi is the legendary world of the immortals, a place of incomparable elegance and sanctity. The poet says that the white lotus should occupy a place in such a place, which is obviously saying that those who are talented should be given the position they deserve in human society. Here, of course, we cannot exclude the poet's meaning of self-condemnation. However, in feudal society, the burial and destruction of talents is not an individual phenomenon, but a common problem in society.
The last two lines: the moon is bright, the wind is clear, the flowers are dying, only hate but no emotion, who understands you?
The white lotus seems to be emotionless, but there is hate, in the cool morning wind blowing, no one knows when, this is exactly when the petals of the white lotus will fall. Such imagery and description is both suitable for the author's mind of the character of the white lotus features, but also very emotional and aftertaste. In the last two lines, the poet writes from the empty space, writing the flower as if it were hidden, vivid.
Poem translator:
Xu Yuan-chong (许渊冲)
About the poet:
Lu Guimeng (陆龟蒙), ? - 881 A.D., Tang Dynasty agronomist and literary scholar, native of Wu County, Jiangsu Province. He was a member of the staff of the assassins of Huzhou and Suzhou, and later lived in seclusion in Fuli, Songjiang, and his poems are mostly about scenery and objects.
