Home › Poems › Plum Blossom Quatrain
Méi Huā Jué JùPlum Blossom Quatrain 梅花绝句
Lu You loved plum blossom so much he wished for a self beneath every tree.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
闻道梅花坼晓风
wén dào méi huā chè xiǎo fēng
雪堆遍满四山中
xuě duī biàn mǎn sì shān zhōng
何方可化身千亿
hé fāng kě huà shēn qiān yì
一树梅花一放翁
yī shù méi huā yī fàng wēng
Simplified characters; traditional title: 梅花絕句.
English translation
I hear the plum has burst open in the dawn wind;
snow lies heaped on all the hills around.
How could I split myself into a million selves —
one Lu You for every blossoming plum tree?
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Lu You loved plum blossom so much he wished for a self beneath every tree. The scene stays with you.
Background
Lu You loved plum blossom so much he wished for a self beneath every tree.
Key words
- 闻道 wén dào
- I have heard that; hearing the Way
- 雪堆 xuě duī
- a heap of snow
About the poet: Lu You
Lu You is the most prolific poet in Chinese history, with nearly ten thousand poems. Throughout his life he urged the Southern Song to recover the north from the Jurchen Jin; patriotism and rural life are his two great themes.
Lifetime: 1125–1210. Other famous works: Visiting a Village West of the Mountains (游山西村); To My Son (示儿); Phoenix Hairpin (钗头凤); Plum Blossom Quatrain (梅花绝句); Spring Rain Clearing in Lin'an (临安春雨初霁); Reading on a Winter Night (冬夜读书示子聿).
More by Lu You
- To My Son示儿
- Visiting a Village West of the Mountains游山西村
- Spring Rain Clearing in Lin'an临安春雨初霁
- Reading on a Winter Night冬夜读书示子聿