Huā Fēi Huā
花非花

Bái Jūyì（Táng）
白居易（唐）

Huā fēi huā,
花非花，
wù fēi wù.
雾非雾。
Yèbàn lái,
夜半来，
tiānmíng qù.
天明去。
Lái rú chūnmèng bùduō shí?
来如春梦不多时?
Qù sì zhāoyún wú mìchù.
去似朝云无觅处。

Evaluation

像花又不是花，像雾又不是雾，在夜半时分来临，又在天亮的时候隐去。来的时候像春梦一样短暂，能停留多久呢？离去的时候又好像早上的云霞般飘散，没有地方可去寻找。
In bloom, she's not a flower; hazy, she's not a haze. She comes at midnight hour; she goes with starry rays. She comes like vernal dreams that cannot stay and goes like morning clouds that melt away.

这首诗用了一连串的比喻，虽然我们不知道比喻的本体是什么，但是可以感觉到作者是写一种美好而又短暂、令人向往而又不可捉摸的东西或现象，表现出一种对于生活中存在过、而又消逝了的美好的人与物的追念、惋惜之情。
There are a series of metaphors employed in this poem. Though we don’t know exactly about what the poem is writing about, we have the impression that it is something beautiful, transient, desirable but intangible. The whole poem describes the poet's regrets and memory about the people and things that have gone and never return in his life.

Explanation

云霞(yúnxián) : n. rosy cloud
飘散(piāosàn) : v. float away
一连串(yìliánchuàn): n. a series of
比喻 (bǐyù): v. compare to/as
短暂 (duǎnzàn) :adj. a very short time of
捉摸(zhuōmō) : v. figure out
现象 (xiànxiàn): n. phenomenon

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