#'those proud yet humble flowers would never have known fame if they never met lin hejing'

[fwoopersongs]

山园小梅二首 - Little Plum Blossoms of the Garden in the Mountain (2)

by 林逋 (Lin Bu, 967 - 1028 AD)

众芳摇落独暄妍， zhòng fāng yáo luò dú xuān yán Among the multitude of fallen flowers, its shining beauty warms;

占尽风情向小园。 zhàn jǐn fēngqíng xiàng xiǎo yuán full of grace, centre of attention, it leans into a little garden.

疏影横斜水清浅， Shū yǐng héng xié shuǐ qīng qiǎn, Delicate, tilting branches reflected on clear and shallow water,

暗香浮动月黄昏。 àn xiāng fúdòng yuè huánghūn its subtle fragrance drifts with the rising moon at dusk.

霜禽欲下先偷眼， shuāng qín yù xià xiān tōuyǎn The snowy cranes long to land and sneak a glance,

粉蝶如知合断魂。 fěndié rú zhī hé duàn hún if butterflies could only see, their souls would depart!

幸有微吟可相狎， xìng yǒu wēi yín kě xiāng xiá How fortunate I am, for the presence of this muse,

不须檀板共金樽。 bù xū tánbǎn gòng jīn zūn for my clappers no longer need wine’s company in song.

Okay, so Lin Bu 林逋 of Northern Song! 

His courtesy name was Jun Fu 君复, and as I mentioned in the previous post, his posthumous name was He Jing 和靖. People called him Master Hejing (Hejing-xiansheng). 

Mr Hejing’s great (or some number of greats) grandpa was a government official with a high post, but by his generation, his family was already of the lower-middle class. They lived in Qiantang, Hangzhou - don’t quote me on this xD. He was a hardworking and talented child who enjoyed reading, art and old stuff, and grew up to be a talented painter and writer of things. But he also was very very much an introvert who liked the peace and quiet, was alright with living rough, did not like the power hungry or materialistic. 

So what’s the solution to that? Apparently to move up into the mountains and build a house there. Which was exactly what he did when he turned 40!

So up in his mountain house, he had a garden. And in that garden, there was a plum blossom tree which he was very fond of (some sources say trees, plural... but i prefer to believe there was just one!). Mr Hejing also delighted in rearing cranes. 

(picture source)

Such was his love for his plum blossom tree and crane(s?) that people coined a term for it: Plum blossom wife & crane son 梅妻鹤子. I honestly can’t tell if they were trying to be subtly mean about him never marrying and having children or what - but that imagery of him in his mountain home, with a tree and a crane was so #aesthetic that it became the source of inspiration for generations of artists and poets everywhere (apparently including Japan! as you can see from the 17th century painting up there ^). 

Oh, and a cute story from his baidu page! This mountain of his was near the West Lake in Hangzhou, and he liked to go on boating adventures on the lake, visiting temples and such. So whenever friends called on him at his mountain home, his servant boys (or students? idk) would get his cranes to fly! And that’s how he knew he had to return and entertain his visitors. 

#poems #山园小梅二首 #林逋 #sorry about the long post guys #this dude is just too cool #i read that he was the first poet to really appreciate the beauty and nature of plum blossoms #and was the trendsetter for all the writers who came after him #that's why that other poem from yesterday was like #'those proud yet humble flowers would never have known fame if they never met lin hejing' #im paraphrasing okay shush! #notes #in praise of plum blossoms #commentary