238 t He tang Dy na s t y
C 1 1. 4
Planting Flowers on the Eastern Slope, No. 1 東坡種花 (dōng pō zhòng huā)I took my money and bought flowering trees, 持錢買花樹 (chí qián măi huā shù)
2 To plant on the slope east of the city. 城東坡上栽 (chéng dōng pō shàng zāi)
I purchased only those with flowers— 但購有花者 (dàn gòu yŏu huā zhĕ)
4 Whether peach or almond or plum. 不限桃杏梅 (bú xiàn táo xìng méi)A hundred kinds of fruit trees all planted
together, 百果參雜種 (băi guŏ cān zá zhòng)
6 Thousands of branches blossom in turn. 千枝次第開 (qiān zhī cì dì kāi)
Of Heaven’s seasons, there is early and late, 天時有早晚 (tiān shí yŏu zăo wăn)
8 But the bounty of the soil knows not high and
low. 地力無高低 (dì lì wú gāo dī)The first poem casually—almost convivially—begins in what might be called
a confessional mode, with Bai Juyi divulging an impulsive moment. Interested
only in the (inherently short-lived) aesthetic pleasure provided by flowers, uncon-
cerned with the type of fruit that flowering trees will inevitably bear, he has used
his money to buy a few trees: we cannot know how many. Then, in the very next
stanza, as if to underline the spontaneity and the magnitude of the gesture, the
trees stand before us in greater profusion than the eye can possibly take in, al-
ready planted and flourishing in a riot of spring beauty. The “hundred kinds” and
“thousands of branches” threaten to overwhelm vision, transporting the beholder
from the countable world of commerce to the unaccountable world of myth. Simi-
larly, the shift from the narrative moment in the first stanza to the eternal cyclical
unfolding in the second points away from the poet’s deceptively ordinary (if idio-
syncratic) act to a scene of more far-reaching significance. That scene now reveals
itself as unabashedly allegorical: the picture of the perfectly just society that ani-
mates Bai Juyi’s dreams, where, even though time may take its toll, all members
enjoy equal opportunities to grow and thrive.
Once Bai Juyi has entered the realm of allegory, he does not leave it; but neither
does he abandon the persuasively vivid and personal picture of the trees them-
selves, the surrounding scene, and his presence there:Their red—the lavish scarlet of morning clouds, 紅者霞豔豔 (hóng zhĕ xiá yàn yàn)
10 Their white—the frosty gleam of snow. 白者雪皚皚 (bái zhĕ xuĕ ái ái)
Roaming bees will leave here no more, 遊蜂逐不去 (yóu fēng zhú bú qù)
12 Fine birds, too, will come and perch. 好鳥亦棲來 (hăo niăo yì qī lái)The color of the flowers, thriving under these ideal conditions, is a study in purity,
naturally attracting the most desirable inhabitants. “Fine birds” and “roaming
bees” have populated ideal poetic gardens since the Han dynasty, and so here, as
in the preceding stanzas, we find images entrenched in tradition even as they ap-
peal strongly to the senses.