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Huà Méi NiǎoThe Thrush 画眉鸟

Ouyang Xiu (欧阳修, also known as Zuiweng)｜Northern Song｜seven-character quatrain

Ouyang Xiu: a thrush singing freely in the woods sounds better than one in a cage.

Original Chinese text with pinyin

百啭千声随意移
bǎi zhuàn qiān shēng suí yì yí

山花红紫树高低
shān huā hóng zǐ shù gāo dī

始知锁向金笼听
shǐ zhī suǒ xiàng jīn lóng tīng

不及林间自在啼
bù jí lín jiān zì zài tí

Simplified characters; traditional title: 畫眉鳥.

A hundred trills, a thousand notes, moving where it likes,

among red and purple mountain flowers, high and low in the trees.

Only now I know: the songs heard in a golden cage

are nothing to its free singing in the woods.

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

百啭千声随意移 · bǎi zhuàn qiān shēng suí yì yí — A hundred trills, a thousand notes, moving where it likes,

山花红紫树高低 · shān huā hóng zǐ shù gāo dī — among red and purple mountain flowers, high and low in the trees.

始知锁向金笼听 · shǐ zhī suǒ xiàng jīn lóng tīng — Only now I know: the songs heard in a golden cage

不及林间自在啼 · bù jí lín jiān zì zài tí — are nothing to its free singing in the woods.

Ouyang Xiu: a thrush singing freely in the woods sounds better than one in a cage. The scene stays with you.

Ouyang Xiu: a thrush singing freely in the woods sounds better than one in a cage.

Ouyang Xiu led the Northern Song classical-prose revival and left accomplished poetry and ci.

Lifetime: 1007–1072. Other famous works: The Thrush (画眉鸟); Spring Outing at Fengle Pavilion (丰乐亭游春); Picking Mulberries (采桑子).