ChineseStudy

281. Parting (First of Two) | Du Mu

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English translation

Graceful and slender, just past thirteen; like cardamom buds on a branch in early spring.

Graceful and slender describes a light, lovely figure. Just past thirteen means barely more than thirteen years old. Cardamom is a southern plant that comes into bud in the second month of spring, and later ages coined the phrase cardamom years for a young girl. The flower is set against the girl to show youth just opening.

Along ten li of Yangzhou road in the spring wind, when the pearl blinds roll up, none can compare.

Ten li of spring wind describes the bustle of Yangzhou's long streets and hints at the many beauties along them. Rolling up the pearl blinds means letting the faces behind them be seen. But none can compare closes the field: of all the fair women of Yangzhou, not one matches the girl before him. Rather than describe her in detail, the poet raises her by one comparison.

赏析 · Commentary

以花写人，以城衬人 · A Flower for the Girl, a City to Set Her Off

前两句用豆蔻花比喻十三岁的少女，取其初绽未盛之态；后两句把整个扬州城搬出来做陪衬。诗人不细写眉眼，只说满城珠帘卷起都不如她，用人数和繁华来突出她的独一份。

The opening pair likens the thirteen-year-old to a cardamom bud, catching the moment before full bloom; the closing pair brings in the whole city of Yangzhou as a foil. The poet describes no eyes or brows; he says only that all the raised blinds of the city cannot compare, using the crowd and the splendor to set her apart.

为什么这个比喻能流传 · Why the Image Endured

“豆蔻梢头二月初”之所以成为名句，是因为它既准确又不直白：花在梢头、时在初春，正好对上一个刚刚长成的少女；花还没有全开，比盛放的花更贴切。后来“豆蔻年华”成了成语，可见这个比喻击中了许多人的共同感受。

The line about cardamom buds in early spring became famous because it is exact without being explicit: a bud at the tip of a branch in the first warmth of spring matches a girl just coming into her own. The flower has not yet fully opened, which fits better than one in full bloom. It later became the idiom cardamom years, proof that the image struck a feeling many share.

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