Emotional Encounters IV: South of the River Grows the Red Tangerine (Zhang Jiuling, Emotional Encounters IV)

In the southern lands there grows a red tangerine tree,

Its leaves remain green even through winter's chill.

It is not because the climate there is warm,

But because it has a nature that endures the cold.

One might offer its fruit to honored guests,

Yet countless barriers block the way.

Fortune is but a matter of encounter,

The cycle of cause and effect is hard to trace.

In vain they speak of planting peach and plum trees—

Does this tangerine tree not also cast its shade?