FēngWind 风
Li Jiao on wind: it strips autumn leaves, opens spring flowers, raises waves, bends bamboo.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
解落三秋叶
jiě luò sān qiū yè
能开二月花
néng kāi èr yuè huā
过江千尺浪
guò jiāng qiān chǐ làng
入竹万竿斜
rù zhú wàn gān xié
Simplified characters; traditional title: 風.
English translation
It can strip the leaves of late autumn
and open the flowers of early spring.
Crossing the river, it raises thousand-foot waves;
entering the bamboo, it bends ten thousand stems.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Li Jiao on wind: it strips autumn leaves, opens spring flowers, raises waves, bends bamboo. The scene stays with you.
Background
Li Jiao on wind: it strips autumn leaves, opens spring flowers, raises waves, bends bamboo.
Key words
- 解落 jiě luò
- key word in the poem
- 三秋 sān qiū
- key word in the poem
- 能开 néng kāi
- key word in the poem
About the poet: Li Jiao
Li Jiao wrote many yongwu poems; his short poem on wind is still taught to children.
Lifetime: 644–713. Other famous works: Wind (风).