This was one of the most confusing pieces for me in Wild Grass.
I asked AI for help and understood a little more, but not fully.
One is a date tree, and another is also a date tree.
The text feels highly poetic and almost plotless. It is mostly atmosphere, and that is exactly why it works as an opening piece.
For me, the core imagery is simple: date trees, sky, and tiny pink flowers.
Different readers will map those symbols differently, but I read the trees as a hard, stubborn figure standing in cold air.
A rough paraphrase of how I feel about it:
Even if the world above is severe, even if beauty is destined to fade, even if only a bare trunk remains, I still stand like iron and pierce the darkness with the loneliest posture.
Maybe this is Lu Xun before full eruption—the tense stillness before the storm.
He is not yet shouting, but the pressure is already there.