RELATED TOPIC:
TANG POETRY

RELATED TOPIC:
WANG WEI (699-761)

RELATED TOPIC:
LI BO (701-762)

"View in Springtime," by Du Fu

The country is smashed, hills and rivers remain.
The city turns to Spring, plants and trees grow deep.

Moved by the moment, flowers splash tears.
Resentful of parting, birds startle the heart.

Beacon fires have lasted for three months now.
Letters from home are worth 10,000 in gold.

I've scratched my white hairs ever scarcer,
until none will be left to hold hairpins to head.

[Translation by Paul Rouzer]

Paul Rouzer :: In the second and third couplets, written in parallel structure, Du Fu creates a series of juxtapositions of power to represent the particular feeling he has, and this collision between nature and man.

In the second couplet, Du Fu turns from his original idea of the collision between nature and human civilization, and instead represents nature as actually responding to the sorrows of the human world.

In this particular couplet, he places flowers against plants and trees. He places the tears that are shed by the flowers to the emotional response of the birds.