Snow in spring

Today I ran across a lovely small poem of Tang Dynasty(618--907 CE) named "Snow in Spring". Associating it to the present season--in the alternating warmth and coldness of early spring in March, I can't help smiling with pleasure. Only people who love poems can feel magic power of Such a wonderous and fantastic poem! It lights up my single heart! If snow is also vexed by the late coming of the warm and blossoming spring, so am I. I can't wait to say goodbye to this annoyingly cold and windy weather.

As for Tang Dynasty,

"It was one of the most prosperous dynasties in Chinese history. It was the golden age for poetry and painting, and best known for tricolored glazed pottery and woodblock painting."

This small poem is called 绝句 Jue Ju. What is 绝句 Jue Ju? it is a kind of ancient Chinese poetry form, similar to Japanese haiku. As usual, Japanese haiku is comprised of 3 lines, 绝句 Jue Ju has 4 lines, each line containing of five or seven Chinese characters.

In this 绝句Jue Ju，there are seven Chinese characters in each line. and its author is the famous poet Han Yu(韩愈)--the head of "Eight Prose Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasty". "Eight Prose Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasty" means 8 greatest poets and prosers during Tang and Song Dynasty, who respectively are Hanyu(韩愈), Liu Zongyuan(柳宗元) from Tang Dynasty and Su Shi(苏轼),Su Xun(苏洵), Su Zhe(苏辙) --Father Su Xun and Brothers Su Shi and Su Zhe, Ouyang Xiu(欧阳修), Wang Anshi(王安石) as well as Zeng Gong(曾巩) from Song Dynasty.
In my last Steemit blog "The begining of spring", I just referred to a poem written by Wang Anshi(王安石), who was also a prime minister in his time.

I love ancient Chinese poems so much. To some extent, it should be due to my mother. She loved reciting ancient Chinese poems when she was a young and vigorous mother. Now aging and illness wear her down, she is confined in bed all day long, which is really the sad side of our life. I am not young any longer, too. but I still clearly remember the scenes that we kids followed her to recite those ancient poems in our countyard under the summer starry night. She is my first teacher to lead me into an aesthetic world full of poems and love.

Until now, if you visit Chinese primary schools, you must hear the loud and long sounds of reading the ancient poems from school-kids. For Chinese, it is no exaggeration to say that reciting ancient Chinese poems loudly is a nourishment for the mind, a kind of spiritual food, a root of Chinese culture! --"China is a country of poem in history, having long 'the poem teaching' tradition."

At the same time, in my school-days--my youthful days, I immersed myself in a lot of popular novels from a Taiwan modern female author Qiong Yao(琼瑶) who won the title "God-mother of love" by young generations. She is proficient in ancient Chinese culture and poems, in her novels, readers can have access to a lot of ancient Chinese poems, known or unknown, with perfect interpretations through Chinese love stories between man and woman in the modern society.

The name of one of her famous novels--在水一方"Living beyond the River" originates from an ancient Chinese poem directly. After being made into movie, its theme song from the same beautiful ancient poem became fashionable for a time, passing down to now.

A golden song, a real classic!

Anyone can open this vedio to enjoy it.

I am afraid that many times foreigners have no way to appreciate the special beauty of Chinese poems/songs if they don't follow Chinese language. I wish I can find this song's English version for you--Steemiverse readers later. (If anyone has its English version, welcome to tell me in my blog's comments.)

In the past few years, I loved to share Chinese poems to my late American husband. He always took a great interest in ancient Chinese culture and art. We learned from each other, getting lost in our unique world.

For that reason, he especially sent me a wonderful English poem and recited it to me for helping improve my English listening comprehesion.

A Special World

A special world for you and me
A special bond one cannot see
It wraps us up in its cocoon
And holds us fiercely in its womb.

Its fingers spread like fine spun gold
Gently nestling us to the fold
Like silken thread it holds us fast
Bonds like this are meant to last.

And though at times a thread may break
A new one forms in its wake
To bind us closer and keep us strong
In a special world,where we belong

---

Now he has gone, I can still feel his gentle voice of recting this poem near my ear, like a lullaby, making my body so comfortable, my heart so warm.


Let's enjoy this lovely 绝句Jue Ju together. In North China, the early spring still remains cold, although the trees in the air are covered with the buds, the grass drills secretly from the earth, so tender and green. The snow in spring can come unexpectedly, inspring our great ancient poet to create such a subtle poem filled with feelings of whimsy.

《春雪》 韩愈

新年都未有芳华，二月初惊见草芽。
白雪却嫌春色晚，故穿庭树作飞花。

Snow in Spring
Han Yu

The new year has yet no fragrant blossoms,

But the second moon suddenly sees the grass sprouting;

The white snow, vexed by the late coming of spring's colours,

Of set purpose darts among the courtyard's trees to fashion flying petals.