Song Dynasty
Song of Good Event · Written in a Dream
Qin Guan
春路雨添花
花动一山春色
行到小溪深处
有黄鹂千百
飞云当面化龙蛇
夭矫转空碧
醉卧古藤阴下
了不知南北
Translation
This ci poem describes a spring outing in a dream. After rain, flowers bloom and the spring scenery seems to flow across the mountains. The images in the poem are never still: flowers move, clouds change shape, orioles sing, and the stream leads the traveler deeper in. At the end, the speaker lies drunk beneath an old wisteria, no longer knowing north from south. It is both the haze of a dream and a momentary freedom from the directions and burdens of the human world.
Analysis
The whole poem is framed as a dream and presents a vivid scene of spring travel after rain. The opening line, "spring roads, rain adding flowers," immediately creates a landscape where flowers bloom after rainfall and the colors of spring seem to move through the mountains. In the second half, "flying clouds before the face transform into dragons and snakes" gives the poem a vigorous, shifting energy. The final lines, "drunk, lying beneath the shade of an old wisteria, knowing nothing of north or south," merge drunkenness and dream, expressing a state of transcendence and freedom from worldly concerns.
About the Author
Qin Guan, 1049–1100, courtesy name Shaoyou and also Taixu, known as Huaihai Jushi, was a major lyric poet of the Northern Song dynasty and one of the "Four Scholars of Su Shi's Circle." His ci poems often write of parting, dreams, and the sorrows of life. His language is graceful and refined, with deep and lingering emotion.