惠崇春江晚景2/2 On “A River Spring Dawn”

惠崇春江晚景（第二首）

原作: 苏轼（字子瞻, 号东坡居士; 11世纪北宋）

英译及赏析: 闵晓红(2025)

两两归鸿欲破群，依依还似北归人。

遥知朔漠多风雪，更待江南半月春。

On “A River Spring Dawn” （Poem Two)

--an inscription for the painting by Monk Hui Chong

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

English version + annot. by Julia Min (2025)

A flock of swan geese set off, heading north;

But two were lagging behind the flight form.

The desolate desert is in snow and wind;

So better stay longer in River South spring.

宋人《芦雁图》著录于《石渠宝笈》

Appreciation: (quoted from  On “A River Spring Dawn” 1/2)

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.