45. Late Spring
(Tang)Han Yu

Plants and trees realized spring would leave sooner or later，

They tried hard to contend in beauty and ambrosial aroma.

Catkins and elm seeds lack talent and are mediocre，

The only thing they know is to fly without grace in the air.

In Chinese phonetic alphabet and Chinese characters：

晚 wǎn 春 chūn

（唐）韩愈

草 cǎo 木 mù 知 zhī 春 chūn 不 bù 久 jiǔ 归 ɡuī ，

百 bǎi 般 bān 红 hónɡ 紫 zǐ 斗 dòu 芳 fāng 菲 fēi 。

杨 yánɡ 花 huā 榆 yú 荚 jiá 无 wú 才 cái 思 sī ，

惟 wéi 解 jiě 漫 màn 天 tiān 作 zuò 雪 xuě 飞 fēi 。

Notes： Is this poem about late spring? The poet didn't tell us flowers are falling down and plants are withering. Instead，he told us plants and trees were contending in beauty and ambrosial aroma. Plants and trees had sense，they realized spring would soon be gone,they were grasping time to present to us a flourishing scene. Even catkins and elm seeds，which had no talents or capabilities，were also trying to add color to late spring. This is really a positive and refreshing poem. What helped the poet to reach this effect was his way of personification,he gave sense and feelings to plants，to trees of willow and elm.

【说明】 此诗是写暮春的吗？诗人不写百花稀落、暮春凋零，却写草木因留春而争奇斗艳的动人情景。草木亦有知，它们知道春将不久矣，便抓紧时间呈现出万紫千红的样子。就连那没有什么姿色的杨花和榆钱也要为暮春添色。这是一首积极，且令人耳目一新的诗。拟人化的写作手法，让草木、杨柳和榆树也动情，帮诗人达到了好的效果。 A/zZx3WNdCxP9RWn75trhsdup/OwnT0kX48DiBeUeStRbc/LU+uks4bvMVCzjC0M