
tree, wrapped in vines,
shape broken & trunk hidden;
an attempt to blend?

tree, wrapped in vines,
shape broken & trunk hidden;
an attempt to blend?
South of Yangtze, stands of red tangerine
Can endure winter while remaining green.
Is it that the weather there is so warm?
No. Their nature 's to bear a winter storm.
What might well serve the joyful traveler
Will be loathsome peril to passengers.
Fate factors in chance and situation --
Not playing around in cyclic rotation.
You may cultivate crops however you please,
But should heed shade thrown by mountains & trees.
This is the fourth poem in 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首] and the final poem of a quartet that opens that collection. The original in Simplified Chinese is:
江南有丹橘, 经冬犹绿林;
岂伊地气暖? 自有岁寒心。
可以荐嘉客, 奈何阻重深!
运命惟所遇, 循环不可寻。
徒言树桃李, 此木岂无阴?

unfurled buds,
not drooped to gravity,
tell Spring’s story.

trunk splits to branches
that stretch to the edge
of oxygen’s crossing.