The magnolia-tipped trees,
In mountains burst in flowers.
The mute brook-side house sees,
Them blow and fall in showers.
Original Poem:
「辛夷坞」
王维
木末芙蓉花，山中发红萼。
涧户寂无人，纷纷开且落。
Interpretation:
This small poem describes the scene of Xinyi flowers blooming and falling in the mountains, like a fine painting, depicting the scenery of the Rim River area from various aspects.
In the first two lines, the topmost flower of the branch, Xinyi Flower, blooms its bright red calyx in the mountain, red and white, which is very gorgeous.
The first two lines of the poem compare the Xinyi flower to the hibiscus flower. Not only does it bloom so scarlet and brilliantly, but it blooms high in the treetops, overlooking a deep stream, and is so lofty and proud. The poet chooses the metaphor of “hibiscus flower” and sets the scarlet color to describe the colorful and vibrant flowers of the hibiscus.
The last two lines: the stream is silent and nowhere to be seen, with the passage of time, have blossomed, petals floating down.
In the third line, the flowers are placed in a deep mountain stream with no one in sight. However, in this human traces of neither, the human heart can not be, desolate and cold, ancient silence in the mountain stream, but there are Xinyi flowers through thousands of years and grow. It blossomed that warmly bloom, so that the silence of the cold and white mountain stream wild a red, it is no pity when the flowers fell down on their own, people think of petals such as colorful red rain sprinkled in the mountains.
It opens its own fall, in accordance with the nature of nature, no one to appreciate it, and no one to appreciate it. It is willing to be indifferent, resting in loneliness. Obviously, the imagery of the flower blooming and falling in a deep stream in solitude and loneliness is rich in profound symbolic meaning. We feel from its environment, ecology, look and temperament, the poet's feelings of emptiness and indifference, the pursuit of self-nature and purity, and the poet's fascination with the beauty of nature's self-satisfaction, quietness and tranquility, and the coldness and transcendence of nature when he lived in Rim Chuan in his later years.
In four short lines, the poem depicts the beautiful image of the flower, but at the same time writes a kind of lonesome situation and environment.
Poem translator:
Xu Yuan-chong (许渊冲)
About the poet:
Wang Wei (王维), 701-761 A.D., was a native of Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. Wang Wei was a poet of landscape and idylls. His poems of landscape and idylls, with far-reaching images and mysterious meanings, were widely loved by readers in later generations, but Wang Wei never really became a man of landscape and idylls.
