"Chunwang" (Chinese: 春望; pinyin: Chūnwàng) is a poem by Tang dynasty poet Du Fu, written after the fall of Chang'an to rebel forces led by An Lushan, as part of the civil war that began in 755.
[1] 國 破 山 河 在 城 春 草 木 深 感 時 花 濺 淚 恨 別 鳥 驚 心 烽 火 連 三 月 家 書 抵 萬 金 白 頭 搔 更 短 渾 欲 不 勝 簪
(Traditional)国 破 山 河 在 城 春 草 木 深 感 时 花 溅 泪 恨 别 鸟 惊 心 烽 火 连 三 月 家 书 抵 万 金 白 头 搔 更 短 浑 欲 不 胜 簪
[16] However, the poem's exact rhyme scheme is unclear because the pronunciation of classical Chinese characters using pinyin (a modern transliteration system introduced in the 1950s) is distinct from what they would have sounded like in the Tang dynasty.
[5] In Matsuo Bashō's Oku no Hosomichi (1689), the opening lines of "Chunwang" are subverted to instead highlight the "instability of the nonhuman world and the resilience ... of poetry itself".
[12] In particular, he wrote that Nee Wen-yei's "obviously half-desperate" translation "ruined the poetry" by contriving a "tense structure" while trivialising the "poignant wry humour" of the final two lines.