蝶恋花 . 花褪残红青杏小 When catkins vanish in the weakening wind

蝶恋花 . 花褪残红青杏小

原作：苏东坡 (11世纪)

英译：闵晓红（2022）

花褪残红青杏小。

燕子飞时，

绿水人家绕。

枝上柳绵吹又少。

天涯何处无芳草。

墙里秋千墙外道。

墙外行人，

墙里佳人笑。

笑渐不闻声渐悄。

多情却被无情恼。

When Catkins Vanish in the Weakening Wind

— to the tune “Butterflies in Love with Flowers”

 Chinese original: Su Dongpo (Su Shi, 11th century)

English version: Julia Min (2025)

When catkins vanish in the weakening wind,

spring blossoms yield to apricots, still green.

Swallows wheel round houses, skim the waters;

There is splendour in grass, as glory in flowers.

Behind the walls, some girls laugh on swings.

before the walls, a traveller, in pensive motion.

Slowly, the cheers of joy fade into the distance—

the innocence of spring, the yearnings of autumn.

For appreciation:

This poem was most likely composed during Su Dongpo’s exile in Huangzhou, Hubei Province, a period marked by both political marginalisation and profound spiritual transcendence. Its structure is built on a series of contrasts: youth and age, joy and melancholy, enclosure and exposure, and, at a deeper level, the favoured “new party” within the Song court and the banished “old party” outside it.

In the first stanza, the poet introduces the passing of spring. The fading blossoms, green apricots, wheeling swallows, and flourishing grass collectively suggest transformation rather than loss. Although decline is visible, Dongpo deliberately turns the tone, as often in his poems, towards consolation: “there is splendour in grass, as glory in flowers.” This line serves as philosophical self-reassurance—an assertion that life’s value does not reside solely in brilliance and success. It reflects the mature optimism of a mind tempered by experience, an understanding that plenitude persists even as forms change. This is the “philosophic mind” that emerges only with age and endurance.

The second stanza sharpens the emotional contrast and deepens the poem’s political implications. The laughter of young girls within the walls represents carefree innocence and untroubled favour, while the lonely traveller outside embodies exile, reflection, and thwarted ambition. As the laughter gradually fades, so too does the poet’s connection to official life and recognition. The concluding line delivers a restrained yet piercing irony: “the sentimental is troubled by the heartless.” Here, Dongpo employs the antonyms inside and outside not merely as spatial markers but as moral and emotional symbols—the inside signifying unthinking privilege, the outside bearing the weight of conscience and compassion.

Thus, the poem is both a lyrical meditation on seasonal change and a subtle, sardonic commentary on political injustice. Without bitterness or overt protest, Su Dongpo transforms personal disappointment into reflective insight, allowing restraint, balance, and humanity to speak more powerfully than complaint – all achieved in plain, simple everyday language.

A similar sentiment is shared in an English poem “Dover Beach” by Mathew Arnold: “The world inside laughs; the thinker stands outside.” -- a sense of historical and personal displacement, and a solitary observer watching innocence retreat. In addition, ‘splendour in grass’ and ‘the glory in flowers’ are borrowed from Wordsworth’s verses:

"...The radiance which was once so bright Is now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass Of glory in the flower We will grieve not Rather find strength in what remains behind.”

Reference:

1. Blooming Alone in Winter by Gordon Osing, Julia Min and Huang Haipeng，published by the People's Publication House Henan Province in 1991 (《寒心未肯随春态》戈登.奥赛茵，闵晓红，黄海鹏) (“It's time for flowers to fade and wither; the tiny apricots are green./And swallows dart over the fish ponds around the houses./ The wind can't scatter the catkin willows any more./Where is not the spice of all things growing?//Inside a wall a lady swings, outside I have my road, apart./Outside the wall a wanderer walking, inside a lady's pretty laughing./It seems that laughter fades forever on the wanderer's ears;/He feels too much and knows that laughing knows no heart.”)

2. ChatGPT;

3. pictures from 汪国新

---