惠崇春江晓景 On “A River Spring Dawn”

惠崇春江晓景 (第一首)

原作: 苏轼（字子瞻, 号东坡居士; 11世纪北宋）

旧版英译:戈登.奥赛茵, 闵晓红, 黄海鹏(1990)

新版修改及赏析: 闵晓红(2023)

竹外桃花三两枝，

春江水暖鸭先知。

蒌蒿满地芦芽短，

正是河豚欲上时。

On “A River Spring Dawn”(Poem One)

--an inscription for the painting by Monk Hui Chong

Chinese original by Su Shi (11th AC, social name 'Dongpo')

old En. version by G. Osing, J. Min & H. Huang (1990)

revised En. version+ annot. by Julia Min (2023)

When old bamboos set off a few peach blooms

And one wild duck calls out: “The water is fine”,

And asparagus and wormwood show green shoots,

Then surfaces the globefish, in the nick of time.

For Appreciation：

Hui Chong (965–1017, Song Dynasty) was a monk and painter, especially known for his landscape paintings featuring mountains and water, often adorned with geese, ducks, and other birds that reflect rural life or, in academic terms, humanism. It might have been a collector seeking an inscription from Su Shi on the painting. Sadly, as many artworks were lost to the invasions of the Jin and Liao, or later in history, the painting no longer exists. Fortunately, the artwork has survived through this poem and has been widely renowned ever since. Every school student in China can recite it, and the seco^nd line is frequently quoted in literature.

Indeed, Su Shi has successfully put into living words the moment when all of nature comes to life, where other dimensions of physical sensations are technically built into the one surface of a painting. The painting pleases the eye like poetry, whereas the poem presents the picture in rhyming motion.  The Song people would say: you can paint poetry, and also, you may compose a painting with words.

For your interest, the western landscape painting genre didn’t emerge as a distinct genre until a few hundred years later, during the Renaissance and peaking in the Industrial Revolution.

Reference:

1. Blooming Alone in Winter by Gordon Osing, Julia Min, and Huang Haipeng, published by the People's Publication House Henan Province in 1990 (《寒心未肯随春态》戈登.奥赛茵，闵晓红，黄海鹏) (“Spring Dawn at the Hui Chong River” --“When old bamboo sets off a few peach blooms/And one wild duck calls out, “The water is fine!”/And onion tips and asparagus shoot green--/Then surfaces globefish, in the nick of time.”)

2. picture from baidu