dà大lín林sì寺táo桃huā花

In 817 Bai Juyi was an assistant official in Jiangzhou, today's Jiujiang in Jiangxi. It was a post with no real power, and he had been sent there as a punishment. In the fourth lunar month that year he and some friends climbed Mount Lu and reached Dalin Temple. Below, the spring flowers had long fallen. Up on the mountain, the peach trees were in bloom. Surprised and delighted, he wrote this poem. He also wrote a short prose account of the trip.

817年，白居易在江州（今江西九江）做司马，这是一个没有实权的小官，他是被贬到这里的。这年农历四月，他和朋友们去游庐山，到了山上的大林寺。山下的春花早已谢了，山上却桃花正开，他又惊又喜，写下了这首诗。他还写过一篇《游大林寺序》，记下了这次游玩。

Bai Juyi (772–846) was a great Tang poet. He believed poems should be easy enough for ordinary people to understand. A story says he read his poems to an old woman and changed any word she did not get. His language is plain, but full of flavour.

白居易（772—846），字乐天，号香山居士，唐代大诗人。他主张诗要写得让普通人都能看懂，据说写完常念给老婆婆听。他的诗语言浅白，却很有味道。

The first line feels a little sad. It is the fourth month, the flowers below have fallen, and spring seems to be gone. The second line suddenly brightens: up on the mountain the peach blossoms are only now in full bloom! The last two lines are the most charming. The poet treats spring like a playful child: I kept blaming you for leaving where I could not find you, and all along you were hiding up here. The poem also holds a real fact of nature: the higher the mountain, the cooler the air, and the later the flowers bloom. The poet goes from letdown to delight, and the reader is glad along with him.

第一句有点失落：四月了，山下的花都谢了，春天好像走了。第二句忽然一亮：山上的桃花才刚刚盛开！第三、四句最可爱，诗人把春天当成一个调皮的孩子：我一直怪你走了找不到，原来你偷偷躲到山上来了。这首诗也藏着一个真实的道理：山越高，气温越低，花就开得越晚。诗人从失望到惊喜，让读者也跟着高兴起来。