“The good rain knows its season.”
—
Du Fu
The quote "The good rain knows its season." is famous quote by Du Fu (712–770), Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty.
Source: Kim Cheng Boey, Between Stations: Essays (2009), p. 102
Context: Spring Night, Delighting in Rain (A translation by Burton Watson)
The good rain knows when to fall,
stirring new growth the moment spring arrives.
Wind-borne, it steals softly into the night,
nourishing, enriching, delicate, and soundless.
Country paths black as the clouds above them;
on a river boat a lone torch flares.
Come dawn we'll see a landscape moist and pink,
blossoms heavy over the City of Brocade.
Original
好雨知时节
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Du Fu 13
Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty 712–770Related quotes
Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 4 (p. 35)
Source: Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories
“Nature knows no calendar, the seasons move in a circle.”
Flora Thompson
(1876–1947) English author and poet
February Chapter The Peverel Papers - A yearbook of the countryside ed Julian Shuckburgh Century Hutchinson 1986
The Peverel Papers
Variant: nights and days came and passed
and summer and winter
and the sun and the wind
and the rain.
and it was good to be a little island
a part of the world
and a world of its own
all surrounded by the bright blue sea.
Source: The Little Island
Du Fu
(712–770) Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty
"Welcome Rain in a Spring Night" (《春夜喜雨》), as translated by Ying Sun http://www.musicated.com/syh/tangpoems.htm (2008)
“Just as a good rain clears the air, a good writing day clears the psyche.”
Julia Cameron
(1948) American writer
Source: The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life
Robert Louis Stevenson
(1850–1894) Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer
Crabbed Age and Youth.
Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
Context: The true wisdom is to be always seasonable, and to change with a good grace in changing circumstances. To love playthings well as a child, to lead an adventurous and honourable youth, and to settle when the time arrives, into a green and smiling age, is to be a good artist in life and deserve well of yourself and your neighbour.