Fake Flower Fun (2/n)

Lightweight verse from heavyweight poets

In Response: On the Occasion of Cutting Imitation Flowers in the Royal Banqueting Hall on the First Day of Spring
Song Zhiwen

Fresh apricots adorn a golden hall,
The banqueters caress fantastic plums.
The mortal world has never seen its like,
This sudden bloom has us in heaven’s realms.
See butterflies explore the scented threads,
Bees linger where the vivid pollen gleams,
This year the spring appeared before its time,
Unfolded by a scissor cut, it seems.

宋之问  奉和立春日侍宴内出剪彩花应制
金阁妆新杏，琼筵弄绮梅。
人间都未识，天上忽先开。
蝶绕香丝住，蜂怜艳粉回。
今年春色早，应为剪刀催。


On the Occasion of Cutting Imitation Flowers in the Palace on the First Day of Spring
Shen Quanqi

The spring must have come early: crack the doors,
To preview every colour within these walls.
Here flowers bloom to greet the morning court,
And leaves deck out imperial banquet halls.
The peach is shocked to find its splendour dimmed,
The plum surprised its scent has gone to naught,
While scissors place these weightless living forms
Forever on the immortal royal wort.

沈佺期  立春日内出彩花应制 
合殿春应早，开箱彩预知。
花迎宸翰发，叶待御筵披。
梅讶香全少，桃惊色顿移。
轻生承剪拂，长伴万年枝。

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I’ll put these up two by two. Individually, they’re not amazing poems. But as a group, I find them rather wonderful, not to mention fascinating. To recap, we’re in early 708, celebrating the First Day of Spring, which is actually in the middle of winter. Spring is not happening yet. In fact, it’s snowing, according to some of these poems.

Shen Quanqi mentions the plum, which is rather special as it flowers in winter. I think he’s saying that those early-flowering trees are already losing their flowers, but the emperor’s imitation flowers are permanent, like the immortal emperor himself.

Song Zhiwen also gets in some flattery of the emperor, saying that these silk flowers are so splendid that we must be in heaven. Song has the flowers fooling the bees into thinking that thye are real. Song also mentions a detail that we will see disagreement on: whether the imitation flowers have any scent. Song suggests that they do, and that it is attracting the butterflies.

Shen and Song were major poets of the early Tang. Even though these poems are somewhat trivial, they represent an amazing gathering of talent, and the verses themselves are lovely. Within the narrow bounds allowed by court poetry, each finds a different angle to praise the emperor and marvel at his silk confections.