empty shell of a spring

"In the wasteland where no grass grows and no flower blooms,

there is no way to perceive the coming of the spring. (胡地無花草 春來不似春)"

 

Li Bai(李白, 701-762) complained that the spring is not like a spring in uncivilized realms because there were no flowertrees to indicate it. My reason for failing to feel the spring here is a different one. As long as we do not see a spring that penetrates the troubled lives of our neighbors to comfort and encourage them, what April brings along will be merely an empty shell of a spring. [Shenzi]

 

 

Though Li Bai was widely known as "an angel in exile(謫仙)", he was sent on exile only once in his actual life, to a place in present Guizhou. And he did not even reach the "uncivilized realm" either. He was extremely slow in proceeding, and the pardon caught up with him while he was still on his way after more than a year since the departure. I am sorry about his failure to get to the destination. What would he have said when he saw lots and lots of flowers in the supposedly springless realm? [Orun]