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Bái Xuě Gē Sòng Wǔ Pàn Guān Guī JīngSong of White Snow 白雪歌送武判官归京
Cen Shen on snow in the eighth month at the frontier, like pear trees blooming overnight.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
忽如一夜春风来
hū rú yī yè chūn fēng lái
千树万树梨花开
qiān shù wàn shù lí huā kāi
Simplified characters; traditional title: 白雪歌送武判官歸京. 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.
English translation
As if overnight a spring wind had come,
and a thousand trees, ten thousand trees, burst into pear blossom.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
North wind snaps white grass; in the eighth month snow already flies over northern skies. Suddenly it is as if spring wind came overnight, and pear blossom opens on a thousand trees.
Background
Cen Shen on snow in the eighth month at the frontier, like pear trees blooming overnight.
Key words
- 胡天 hú tiān
- key word in the poem
- 梨花 lí huā
- key word in the poem
- 武判官 wǔ pàn guān
- key word in the poem
About the poet: Cen Shen
Cen Shen served for years on the far northwestern frontier and is the leading poet of the deserts, snows and garrisons of Central Asia.
Lifetime: c. 715–770. Other famous works: Written in the Desert (碛中作); Meeting an Envoy Bound for the Capital (逢入京使); Song of White Snow in Farewell to Assistant Wu (白雪歌送武判官归京); Song of White Snow (白雪歌送武判官归京).