New Year’s Day
Lunar New Year’s Day (The Spring Festival)
Chinese| Wang Anshi
English to | Zhou Kenan
The sound of firecrackers in the one-year-old except,
Amid the din of crackers the old year is over
The spring breeze sends warmth into Tu Su.
The winds of spring bring warmth to the houses of civilians
Thousands of doors and thousands of households,
To every home the sun imparts its brighter rays
Always swap the new peach for the old charm.
Old peach wood charms against evil are replaced by new ones
【Vernacular Translation】
The old years are over in the sound of firecrackers
The spring breeze blows heating into the homes of ordinary people
The sun rises and shines on thousands of households
The new peach charm to ward off evil spirits replaced the old peach charm
【Notes】
1) Yuan Day: The first day of the first lunar month, that is, the Spring Festival.
2) Firecrackers: The sound of bamboo bursting when the ancients burned bamboo was used to drive away evil spirits, and later evolved into firecrackers.
3) One (yí) year divided: one year has been exhausted; division: passed away.
4) Tu Su: A finger Tu Su wine, a kind of wine soaked with Tu Su grass (perilla), it is said that drinking Tu Su wine at the beginning of the first lunar month can ward off evil spirits. Another meaning of Tu Su is Pingya, Mao'an, which by extension means the home of ordinary people.
5) Tóng: The appearance of the sunrise time bright.
6) Peach: Peach rune, two pieces of peach wood hanging on the gate in ancient times with the name of the door god or inscribed with the name of the door god, thought that it could suppress evil, and later pasted on it, so the peach symbol became an alias of the spring union.