Spring Comes Alive (by Bai Juyi)

This is a Tang poem about spring written by Bai Juyi that I translated this morning.  It shows the sympathetic fallacy at work in reverse, with the poet drawn into a springtime reverie through which he experiences his own renewal.  It just goes to prove we are transparent to nature, forward and back - and we have been that way for a very long time.

Spring comes alive in the darkness

That everywhere abounds

To the far ends of the earth

Everything revives from its rest

First a gentle breeze

Imparts the news

Encouraging the birds to share

Their innermost thoughts

The grasses open and expatiate  

Color stretches along the riverbank

Flowers adorn the houses

And small flowering shrubs

It’s as if I had been transported

Back to my childhood home

As if my story too had returned

To its humble start in Jiang Zhou

Photo by M. Bridge

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春生

春生何处暗周游

海角天涯遍始休

先遣和风报消息

续教啼鸟说来由

展张草色长河畔

点缀花房小树头

若到故园应觅我

为传沦落在江州

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