Su Tung-p’o (1037-1101 CE; Song Dynasty) has actually left us an account of his inspiration for this poem! On a trip to the mountains, he heard village boys singing an old folk song called Roadside Flowers. He found the songs “very moving” but felt the lyrics were “too countrified.” So he re-wrote it. And now I have re-written it again. I re-countrified it!

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Burton Watson, transl, Selected Poems of Su Tung-p’o

(Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press 1994) 53. Watson presents the following translation:

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Roadside Flowers: Three Poems with Introduction (1073)

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On a trip to the Mountain of the Nine Immortals [in Lin-an] I heard the village boys singing “Roadside Flowers.” The old men told me that the consort of the king of Wu-Yueh each year in spring would always return to her old home in Lin-an. Then the king would write her a letter saying, “Roadside flowers are in bloom – no hurry, but come on home!” The people of Wu took his words and used them to make a song that is tuneful and full of feeling. When I heard it I found it very moving. But the lyrics were too countrified and so I’ve written new ones.

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I.

Roadside flowers are blooming, butterflies on the wing;

rivers and hills remain, but not the people of times gone by.

Subjects of a lost ruler, growing older year by year, as strolling women keep singing, “No hurry, but come on home!”

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II.

Wild roadside flowers, blooming in boundless numbers;

along the road people view to see her curtained carriage go by. 

If only there were some way to halt spring’s heedless passing –

later on, no hurry, she can go on home.

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III.

Wealth and honor in life were dew on the grass leaf; 

now he’s gone, they remember him in “Roadside Flowers.” 

Slow, slow his steps when the ruler left his kingdom, 

and still they tell his wife, “No hurry, but come back home.” 

My song: The Chinese poem was originally a folk song, so I have composed my version in a folk style. A tune on a CD

of Chinese traditional pipa music reminded me of Appalachian melodies. I also thought of singer/songwriter Bill Staines, whom I first met at folk festivals in the ‘70s. Bill wrote dozens of wonderful songs, including The Roseville Fair and Flowers in the Snow. I hope some of that feeling enters my tune. 

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In songs of many cultures, flowers symbolize love, courtship, and dalliance. Hence, Robert Burns in Ye Banks and Braes:

Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose,

Fu' sweet upon its thorny tree!

And may fause Luver staw my rose,

But ah! She left the thorn wi' me.

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In some Chinese poems, “roadside flowers” suggest trysts and flirtations. Red Pine (trans.), The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain p. 78 n.63 (Copper Canyon Press 2000). I don’t know whether Su T’ung-p’o or the old Chinese folk song intends a similar allusion.

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The flowers that I name grow in the woods and fields around my home.