Home › Poems › Gazing at the Tide

Wàng Hǎi CháoGazing at the Tide 望海潮

Liu Yong (柳永, also known as )｜Northern Song｜ci (song lyric)

Liu Yong on the wealth of Hangzhou, with its osmanthus in autumn and lotus in summer.

Original Chinese text with pinyin

烟柳画桥
yān liǔ huà qiáo

风帘翠幕
fēng lián cuì mù

参差十万人家
cēn cī shí wàn rén jiā

重湖叠𪩘清嘉
zhòng hú dié yǎn qīng jiā

有三秋桂子
yǒu sān qiū guì zi

十里荷花
shí lǐ hé huā

Simplified characters; traditional title: 望海潮. This is a long poem; only the best-known lines are shown, and “……” marks omitted passages.

Note on the text: This page presents a well-known excerpt; the full poem is longer in the traditional corpus.

Misty willows, painted bridges,

wind-stirred curtains, kingfisher-blue screens,

a hundred thousand homes, uneven, crowding.

Layered lakes and folded hills, clear and lovely;

osmanthus seeds through the three months of autumn,

ten miles of lotus flowers.

Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.

烟柳画桥 · yān liǔ huà qiáo — Misty willows, painted bridges,

风帘翠幕 · fēng lián cuì mù — wind-stirred curtains, kingfisher-blue screens,

参差十万人家 · cēn cī shí wàn rén jiā — a hundred thousand homes, uneven, crowding.

重湖叠𪩘清嘉 · zhòng hú dié yǎn qīng jiā — Layered lakes and folded hills, clear and lovely;

有三秋桂子 · yǒu sān qiū guì zi — osmanthus seeds through the three months of autumn,

十里荷花 · shí lǐ hé huā — ten miles of lotus flowers.

Liu Yong on the wealth of Hangzhou, with its osmanthus in autumn and lotus in summer. The scene stays with you.

Liu Yong on the wealth of Hangzhou, with its osmanthus in autumn and lotus in summer.

Liu Yong brought long ci into the marketplace.

Lifetime: c. 987–c. 1053. Other famous works: Gazing at the Tide (望海潮).