Spring line

On Seasons (Orchids and Osmanthus) by Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Jiouling, 673 - 740 AD who served as prime minister.

In spring, orchid leaves abundant and verdant.
In autumn, osmanthus beauty clean and pure.
With growth booming like a business,
Naturally, a good season.

When Zhang Jiouling wrote this poem, he had retired from public service. The editor believes Zhang was saying that now that his great growth is behind him, he will enjoy the next season.

Eastern Sea Line Train Car

Eastern Sea line of cars for travelling far,
Spring fields new green fills the horizon.
Easier agriculture with machines: start a new look.
Ten-thousand acres fields tilled without using cattle.

Japan used to use oxen to plow fields, now, like China, they use machines. Chinese people traditionally rarely ate ox because they needed them for the work. I used to take the cows out and feed the ox. When I rode on this railroad, machines were so popular and I saw no oxen.

Rivers

Song: South of the River (Picking Water Lilies) by unknown author

One voice with chorus accompanied by seven instruments

South of the River, one can pick lilies.

Lily pads, how pretty!

A fish plays among the leaves.

The fish plays on the east.

The fish plays on the west.

The fish plays on the south.

The fish plays on the north.*

*This poem talks about the lily leaves and does not mention the lily flower. These people feel like the fish.

In Response to Guo's poems on New Spring

With the same sounds, my best will barely please you.

The northern area at present so bitterly cold.

Eight generations of diminishing literature*: think revitalization.

Six emperors later broken dreams - regret decline.

Sweeping clean foreign dust: not hopeless. 

Burnt remains of the Ching fire**: worthy of attention.

Of the schools of poetry--West River--one surviving branch

will cause Watery Sea*** to roll in billows.

*Hanyu was a poet who came after eight dynasties and the saying goes that literature declined until he appeared on the scene.

**Ching fire can refer both to the remains of the Emporer Ching Sehuang (who built the Great Wall and Terracotta Soldiers) burning of scholars and books or the two-month blaze of his palace that was set by his successor.

***Name for Japan

Two moments in time

Spontaneous Stroll by Yuen Mei* of the Ching dynasty, 1716-1797

A spontaneous stroll down the western path:
One orchid** floret blooming.
Who first announced the news?
Otherwise were the bees arrived.  

*A good county official, kind to the civilians. When he retired, he returned home to take care of his mother, and built a study for himself called Pleasing Garden. He taught students writing, and they called him Mr. Pleasing. He traveled all around in the south of China.

**orchids characterize subtlety and reservedness


Tokyo Midsummer

Not drunk, no flowers, eyes only awake.
Gradually see the great earth head into darkness.
Willow strands, moon rising, hazy foggy white;
City outskirts, mountains stretching, shadowy gloomy green.
Blazing heat, steaming clouds, wind gusts hot;
Floating fragrance, circling edges, water flows sweet.
Weak tea, tastes thin, cheap commonplace drink:*
Luyu classic, no need to study deeply.

*those sent to Japan from China had low salaries