東晉時有一位丞相叫謝安，
謝丞相對於詩歌最喜歡。
有一天北風呼呼大雪飄，
他帶領侄兒侄女賞雪玩。
俗話說“瑞雪兆豐年”，
賞雪人個個心中喜悅添。
謝安想何不對雪把詩賦，
順便把孩子們的學問考一遍。
老丞相指著大雪笑顏開，
要孩子們一人一句作詩玩。
大侄兒謝朗知道考他們，
心裏頭害怕落後忙爭先。
他念道：“撒鹽空中差可擬”，
老謝安笑笑說道“不恰當。
瑞雪怎好比作鹽？”
回頭問侄女謝道韞：
“好孩子，你若想好何不念？”
道韞說：“我想的恐怕也不好，
說出來，敬請叔叔指教俺。
我說是：‘未若柳絮因風起’。”
一句詩，樂壞叔叔老謝安。
謝朗說：“妹妹詩句果然好，
柳絮比雪不一般，
風吹柳絮如飛雪。
形象生動多好看。”
丞相見侄兒評論也不差，
樂得捋須舉杯盞。
如果是女孩年幼有詩才，
便與道韞是一般。
A Talent for Singing of Willow Catkins
In the Western Jin Dynasty（265—316A。D。）there was a prime minister named Xie An，who took the greatest interest in poetry。One day a strong north wind was blowing a big snow。He took his nieces and nephews to watch the snow。The old saying went that a big snow implied a bumper harvest。The snow-viewers were all very pleased。Xie An then thought to himself，“Why not let each of them make a poem about the snow？So that I can test their knowledge。”
The old prime minister pointed to the snow and smiled，and asked each of them to present a poem of the snow。The eldest nephew Xie Lang knew that his uncle wanted to give them a test，but he feared that he might lag behind。He read out，“It is snowing just like distributing salt from the sky。”Old Xie An laughed and said，“it isn't proper，how can you pare snow with salt？”