Member Poem

Watching the Plum Blossoms

Lu You (1125-1209)
 
 
The plum trees bloom above the gold grass hill —
Though old, a man cannot enjoy their fluff?
Light mist, the moon, the far-off cattle still —
There’s life and death; don’t fret the common stuff.
 
 

Chinese   看梅絕句 陸游   梅花樹下黃茆丘 古人尚能愛花不 月淡煙深聽牧笛 死生常事不須愁

Pronunciation   Kàn Méi Jué Jù Lù Yóu   Méi huā yí hán gēng yí yīn Mó suō zhǔ zhàng guò xī xún Yōu xiāng zhù rén suǒ guǎn lǐng Bù xìn rú jīn tiě shí xīn

 
 
Transliteration and Notes
 
Watching Plum-Blossoms Quatrain Verse
 
Watch plum-blossoms tree beneath yellow grass hill
Old man still can love flowers not
Moon tepid mist far hear cattle whistle
Death life common matters not must worry
 
     Lu You was a prominent poet of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). He was born just as the Song Dynasty lost their capital and the northern territories to invasions by the Jurchens, who formed the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234).  As a result, Lu You’s family fled south. Both Jin, and then Song, would later fall to the Mongolians, led by Kublai Khan.
     The poet was a longtime advocate against the Jin and was dismissed from his civil post for being too jingoistic. He then joined the military and wrote patriotic poems, but his military career was also unsuccessful.
     Lu maintained a lifelong love for his cousin and first wife, whom his parents forced him to divorce (children had to follow their parents’ orders at the time, even as adults). He wrote poems about her from age 31 to age 85, the year before his death. The latter became a traditional opera and their love story is well known in China.