Sprigs of plum by the corner of the wall_x000D_ _x000D_ Are blooming alone in the cold;_x000D_ _x000D_ If not for the subtle fragrance drifting over_x000D_ _x000D_ Who could tell this from snow on the boughs.
Interpretation
The beauty of nature can bring joy and hope even in cold, harsh conditions.
In this quote, Wang Anshi reflects on the resilience of nature through the image of blooming plum flowers, which symbolize beauty and life amid winter's coldness. The subtle fragrance they emit reminds us that even in bleak times, there can be joy and hope, highlighting the importance of recognizing beauty in our surroundings.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of appreciating nature.
After the one extravagant gesture of creation in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in extravagances, flinging intricacies and colossi down aeons of emptiness, heaping profusions on profligacies with ever-fresh vigor. The whole show has been on fire from the word go. I come down to the water to cool my eyes. But everywhere I look I see fire; that which isn't flint is tinder, and the whole world sparks and flames.
We are telling our kids that nature is in the past and it probably doesn't count anymore, the future is in electronics, the boogeyman is in the woods, and playing outdoors is probably illicit and possibly illegal.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar.
Gardening is inevitably a process of constant, remorseless change. It is the constancy of that process that is so comforting, not any fixed moment.
And still the mad magnificent herald Spring assembles beauty from forgetfulness with the wild trump of April:witchery of sound and odour drives the wingless thing man forth in the bright air.
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