Quotes about the seasons
15 real sentences about the seasons, left by people who came before us, from earlier 8th century to 1916, oldest first. Each one has its source and the original text.
Meng Haoran 孟浩然
earlier 8th century · Tang China
Asleep in spring, I did not notice the dawn. Everywhere I hear birds singing. In the night there was the sound of wind and rain. How many flowers have fallen, I wonder?
春眠不覺曉，處處聞啼鳥。
夜來風雨聲，花落知多少。"Spring Dawn," in the Complete Tang Poems
Li Bai 李白
8th century · Tang China
Too lazy to wave my white feather fan, I go naked in the green woods. I take off my headcloth and hang it on a rock wall, and bare my head to the wind in the pines.
嬾搖白羽扇，躶體青林中。
脫巾挂石壁，露頂洒松風。"A Summer Day in the Mountains," in the Complete Tang Poems
Du Fu 杜甫
761 · Tang China
A good rain knows its season; it comes just as spring begins. It steals in on the wind by night and wets all things, fine and soundless.
好雨知時節，當春乃發生。
隨風潛入夜，潤物細無聲。"Welcome Rain on a Spring Night," in the Complete Tang Poems
Du Mu 杜牧
mid-9th century · Tang China
I stop the carriage and sit, in love with the maple wood at evening. The frosted leaves are redder than the flowers of the second month.
停車坐愛楓林晚，霜葉紅於二月花。"Travelling in the Hills"
Sei Shonagon 清少納言
c. 1000 · Heian Japan
In spring, the dawn. The edge of the hills, slowly whitening, grows a little light, and purplish clouds trail in thin streaks.
春は、あけぼの。やうやう白くなりゆく、山ぎは少し明りて、紫だちたる雲の細くたなびきたる。The Pillow Book (Makura no soshi), the first section
Lin Bu 林逋
early 11th century · Hangzhou, Song China
Sparse shadows slant across the clear shallow water. A hidden fragrance drifts in the moonlit dusk.
疏影橫斜水清淺，暗香浮動月黄昏。"Small Plum Tree in a Hill Garden"
Yang Wanli 楊萬里
c. 1166 · Song China
The plums have left a sourness that softens my teeth. The banana tree shares its green with the window gauze. The day is long; I wake from my nap with nothing on my mind, and idly watch the children catching willow down.
梅子留酸軟齒牙，芭蕉分綠與窗紗。
日長睡起無情思，閑看兒童捉柳花。"Waking from a Nap in Early Summer," the first poem, in the Complete Song Poems
Yi Jehyeon 李齊賢
14th century · Goryeo Korea
The paper quilt is cold and the temple lamp is dim; all night the little novice has not rung the bell. He will be cross that the guest opens the door so early, but I must see the snow weighing down the pine before the hermitage.
紙被生寒佛燈暗 沙彌一夜不鳴鍾
應嗔宿客開門早 要看庵前雪壓松Ikjae nango, "A Snowy Night in the Mountains"
Jeong Mongju 鄭夢周
later 14th century · Goryeo Korea
The spring rain is too fine to form drops, but in the night there is the faintest sound. The snow is gone and the south stream will be swelling. How many shoots of grass have come up, I wonder?
春雨細不滴 夜中微有聲
雪盡南溪漲 多少草芽生Poeun jip, book 2, "Spring"
Jeong Cheol 鄭澈
later 16th century · Joseon Korea
The rustle of falling leaves: I took it for a thin rain. I called the monk to go out and look. "The moon is hanging in the tree south of the stream."
蕭蕭落木聲 錯認爲疏雨
呼僧出門看 月掛溪南樹Songgang jip, "Chanted at Night in a Mountain Temple"
Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村
mid-18th century · Edo Japan
The spring sea, all day long rising and falling, rising and falling.
春の海ひねもすのたりのたりかなA haiku
Jeong Yakyong 丁若鏞
c. 1796 · Joseon Korea
Past a month of steaming rain, foul air piling up, my limbs without strength from morning to dusk. Then early autumn: the blue sky clear and vast, from end to end not one speck of cloud. Is that not a delight?
跨月蒸淋積穢氛
四肢無力度朝曛
新秋碧落澄寥廓
端軸都無一點雲
不亦快哉Yeoyudang jeonseo, "Is That Not a Delight?", first of twenty
Dorothy Wordsworth
April 15, 1802 · Lake District, England · Two years later her brother William remembered this day and wrote the poem "Daffodils"
I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones about and above them; some rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow, for weariness; and the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind
The Grasmere Journal
Sarojini Naidu
1905 · Hyderabad, India
Like a joy on the heart of a sorrow, The sunset hangs on a cloud; A golden storm of glittering sheaves, Of fair and frail and fluttering leaves, The wild wind blows in a cloud.
"Autumn Song," in The Golden Threshold
Rabindranath Tagore রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর
1916 · Bengal, India
Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.
Stray Birds, 82
Read by topic
mindset · the world · memory · humor · learning · love · work · longing · friends · loneliness · aging · pride · writing · home · argument · loss · travel · money · drink · parting · complaints · food · sleepless · parents · children · cats
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us