The poem
Grass (草, Cǎo) by Bai Juyi (白居易).
离离原上草lí lí yuán shàng cǎoThick grass grows on the plain,
一岁一枯荣yí suì yì kū róngEach year it dries up and grows again.
野火烧不尽yě huǒ shāo bú jìnWildfire cannot burn it all away,
春风吹又生chūn fēng chuī yòu shēngWhen the spring wind blows, it grows back.
What it means
These are the first four lines of a longer poem Bai Juyi wrote as a teenager. Grass that comes back after every fire has become a picture of never giving up.
Characters to know
- 草 cǎo: grass
- 火 huǒ: fire
- 风 fēng: wind
- 生 shēng: grow
How to practise it
Read the poem aloud together first, then write one line a day using the line buttons above the worksheet. By the end of the week your child can write the whole poem and knows what each line means. When it feels easy, set tracing to 0 and write it from memory.
More poems to print
- 静夜思 Quiet Night Thoughts
- 春晓 Spring Dawn
- 咏鹅 Ode to the Goose
- 登鹳雀楼 On the Stork Tower
- 悯农 Pity the Farmers
- 江雪 River Snow
- 咏柳 Ode to the Willow
- 画 A Painting
- 鹿柴 Deer Park
- 寻隐者不遇 Looking for the Hermit
- 相思 Thinking of You
- 游子吟 Song of the Traveller
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