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2. Stirred by Events, No. 2 | Zhang Jiuling

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English translation

In the south there is a red tangerine tree; through the whole winter it is still green.

The word “still” is laid on heavily: in the south the plants are already stripped by autumn, yet the tangerine tree carries through the whole winter. This couplet sets the tree against ordinary plants.

Is it only because the southern air is warm? It has a cold-resistant nature of its own.

First a question, then a flat statement, one release and one catch. If it were only the advantage of soil and water, there would be nothing to praise; saying “of its own” is what makes the praise land. “A heart for the cold season” is a phrase about pine and cypress, and moving it to the tangerine tree raises the tree.

Fruit like this could be presented to a worthy guest; but the mountains are heavy and the waters far, blocking it again and again.

Qu Yuan's “Ode to the Tangerine” says the tree receives its charge and does not move; joined here with presenting it to a worthy guest, the tangerine turns from a virtue of self-keeping into a usable capacity. The turn rests on “but”: the thing is good, and the road is closed.

Fate is only what one happens to meet; its turning and returning cannot be traced.

The poem moves from the tangerine to the person. The tone sounds like letting things be; under it lies a hidden grievance hard to speak: how much a person can accomplish is not all up to himself. This couplet is where the poet falls back from the image to himself.

People only say to plant peach and plum; can this tree really give no shade?

“Plant” means to cultivate. The image of peach and plum points to those then in favour; the poet does not argue, he only asks: who set the standard for what is useful and what is not. The whole poem closes on this question.

赏析 · Commentary

岁寒心 · A Heart That Withstands Cold

「江南有丹橘，经冬犹绿林」先给一个事实，接着用两句排除掉最容易的解释：不是江南地气暖，是橘自己有耐寒的本性。屈原《橘颂》写过「受命不迁，生南国兮」，张九龄接的正是这个传统——橘的难得不在果实，在于它不迁。前四句分三步走：摆出现象、否定俗解、给出理由。

The first line gives a fact — red tangerine trees in the south stay green through winter — and the next two rule out the easiest explanation for it. It is not that the southern climate is mild. The tree has a nature that withstands cold. Qu Yuan's "Ode to the Orange" had written that the tree receives its charge and does not migrate, and Zhang Jiuling is taking up exactly that tradition: what makes the orange rare is not its fruit but its refusal to move. The first four lines move in three steps: present the fact, reject the obvious reading, give the real reason.

阻重深 · The Way Is Blocked

「可以荐嘉客，奈何阻重深」把上一节的「有本心」推回现实：果子本来能献给贵客，只是山水重重，送不到。有才能不等于有路。张九龄此时在荆州，离长安很远，「重深」既是地理也是人事。他不说是谁挡了路，只说路远，这个分寸是刻意的。

"It could be offered to an honoured guest — but the way is blocked, deep and far." The couplet pushes the earlier claim about inborn nature back into the real world. The fruit is good enough to present; the mountains and rivers simply do not allow it to arrive. Having the quality is not the same as having a road. Zhang Jiuling was at Jingzhou, a long way from Chang'an, and "deep and far" describes the geography and the court politics at once. He does not name whoever blocked him. He says only that the distance is great, and that reticence is deliberate.

桃李之问 · The Question About Peach and Plum

「徒言树桃李，此木岂无阴」以反问收尾：人们只说种桃李，难道橘树就不能成荫？前一句「循环不可寻」已经把命运说成无法追索，到这里本可以停了，他又追问一句。这更像不服，不像怨。全诗从橘的耐寒起，到橘不被人种止，中间隔着「阻重深」，落点回到物的价值本身。

The poem ends on a question: people talk only of planting peach and plum — can this tree not cast shade as well? The preceding line had already declared fate untraceable, which is where the poem might have stopped. Instead he asks once more. It reads less like a complaint than like a refusal to accept the answer. The whole piece begins with the orange's hardiness and ends with the orange's never being planted, with the blocked road standing between them, and the final emphasis falls back on the worth of the thing itself.

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