What do you mean, flowers are not flowers and fog is not fog?

It means: flowers are not flowers, but fog is not fog.

Source: Flowers Are Not Flowers —— Tang Dynasty: Bai Juyi

Say it's flowers, not flowers, say it's fog? Not fog.

It came in the middle of the night and left at dawn.

When did a short and beautiful spring dream come?

When they leave, they are like clouds in the morning.

Translation is like a flower instead of a flower, like a fog instead of a fog. Come at midnight and leave at dawn. How much time will it be like a beautiful spring dream when you come? I'm gone, like a cloud in the morning, with nowhere to see.

Extended data

1, the creative background of Hua Fei Hua

There are two mourning poems in Bai's Changqing Collection: Mother's Tomb and Bamboo Slips Poetry. The poem "Flowers Are Not Flowers" is the same volume as the above two poems, and was later compiled. Therefore, it is speculated that the poem "Flowers Are Not Flowers" and the poem "Notes on Bamboo Slips" were written for the same purpose at the same time.

2. flowers are not flowers.

Flowers are not flowers, an ancient poem by Bai Juyi, a poet in Tang Dynasty. This poem expresses the feeling that life is like a dream, like fog and electricity, and shows a kind of nostalgia and regret for the beautiful people and things that once existed and disappeared in life. The whole poem consists of a series of metaphors, which are obscure and true, with rhythmic, orderly and intricate beauty in obscurity. This is a masterpiece of love poems. Later generations used it to compose music, which was widely circulated.