十一月中旬至扶风[1]界见梅花
匝路亭亭艳，
非时裛裛[2]香。
素娥惟与月，
青女不饶霜。
赠远虚盈手，
伤离适断肠。
为谁成早秀[3]，
不待作年芳[4]。
首联写梅花提前绽放，繁艳清香；颔联写嫦娥助以清辉，青女不减霜威，更使梅花显得凄清；颈联写满手的梅花不知赠予谁，离别的哀愁令人断肠；尾联写梅花未及报春，提前香艳，为谁早早地绽开呢？此诗以梅花自喻，慨叹自己虚成早秀、孤凄不遇的悲哀。
注释：
[1]扶风：即今陕西省宝鸡市扶风县。
[2]裛裛：气味郁盛的样子。
[3]早秀：早开的梅花。
[4]作年芳：为迎接新年而开花芬芳。
Mume Blossoms by the Roadside
Fair by the roadside I see you,
Fragrant before the season due.
The moon will not have her light lost;
The fairy will bite you with frost.
You’ll be given to parting friends
With broken heart without an end.
Why should you so early appear
Before the blossom-coming year?
Note:Neither the moon nor the fairy love the mume blossoms blooming by the roadside in winter.
The first couplet describes the early blooming of plum blossoms, their beauty and fragrance; the second couplet describes Chang’e’s help in bringing out the beauty, and Qingnv’s power without reducing the frost, which makes the plum blossoms look even more desolate; the third couplet describes the hands full of plum blossoms, but not knowing to whom to give them, and the sorrow of parting is heartbreaking; the last couplet describes the plum blossoms blooming before the spring, but blooming in advance, for whom? This poem uses plum blossoms as a metaphor for itself, lamenting the sadness of its own early success and loneliness.
