Home › Poems › Rural Life in Four Seasons (Early Summer)
Sì Shí Tián Yuán Zá XīngRural Life in Four Seasons (Early Summer) 四时田园杂兴
Golden plums, plump apricots; only dragonflies and butterflies pass by.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
梅子金黄杏子肥
méi zi jīn huáng xìng zi féi
麦花雪白菜花稀
mài huā xuě bái cài huā xī
日长篱落无人过
rì zhǎng lí luò wú rén guò
惟有蜻蜓蛱蝶飞
wéi yǒu qīng tíng jiá dié fēi
Simplified characters; traditional title: 四時田園雜興.
English translation
Plums turn gold, apricots grow plump;
wheat flowers snow-white, rape flowers thinning.
The day is long; no one passes the hedge;
only dragonflies and butterflies fly by.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Golden plums, plump apricots; only dragonflies and butterflies pass by. A clear scene with a lasting aftertaste.
Background
By Fan Chengda (南宋).
Key words
- 篱落 lí luò
- key word in the poem
- 蜻蜓 qīng tíng
- key word in the poem
- 蛱蝶 jiá dié
- key word in the poem
About the poet: Fan Chengda
Fan Chengda is loved for seasonal farm poems such as the Fields and Gardens series.
Lifetime: 1126–1193. Other famous works: Rural Life in Four Seasons (Summer) (四时田园杂兴); Rural Life in Four Seasons (Early Summer) (四时田园杂兴); Rural Life in Four Seasons (Spring) (四时田园杂兴).