Home › Poems › Lotus-Picking Song
Cǎi Lián QūLotus-Picking Song 采莲曲
Bai Juyi on a lotus picker who meets her sweetheart, smiles, and drops her hairpin.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
菱叶萦波荷飐风
líng yè yíng bō hé zhǎn fēng
荷花深处小船通
hé huā shēn chù xiǎo chuán tōng
逢郞欲语低头笑
féng láng yù yǔ dī tóu xiào
碧玉搔头落水中
bì yù sāo tóu luò shuǐ zhōng
Simplified characters; traditional title: 採蓮曲.
English translation
Water-chestnut leaves twine with the ripples; lotus leaves sway in the wind;
deep among the lotus flowers a small boat slips through.
Meeting her sweetheart, she wants to speak, but lowers her head and smiles —
and her jade hairpin falls into the water.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Bai Juyi on a lotus picker who meets her sweetheart, smiles, and drops her hairpin. The scene stays with you.
Background
Bai Juyi on a lotus picker who meets her sweetheart, smiles, and drops her hairpin.
Key words
- 搔头 sāo tóu
- key word in the poem
- 菱叶 líng yè
- key word in the poem
- 萦波 yíng bō
- key word in the poem
About the poet: Bai Juyi
Bai Juyi (also romanized Po Chü-i; courtesy name Letian) wrote in a famously plain style — legend says he read drafts to an old woman and revised anything she could not understand. An outspoken official, he was exiled to Jiangzhou and later governed Hangzhou and Suzhou. His poems were hugely popular in Heian Japan.
Lifetime: 772–846. Other famous works: On the Night of the Fifteenth of the Eighth Month, on Duty in the Palace, Thinking of Yuan Zhen (八月十五日夜禁中独直对月忆元九); A Question for Liu the Nineteenth (问刘十九); A New Mountain Cottage Below Incense Burner Peak, Written on the East Wall (香炉峰下新卜山居草堂初成偶题东壁); Grass on the Ancient Plain: A Farewell (赋得古原草送别); Song of Everlasting Sorrow (长恨歌); The Song of the Lute (琵琶行); The Old Charcoal Seller (卖炭翁); Evening Song by the River (暮江吟); On the Pond (池上); White Cloud Spring (白云泉); Remembering the South (忆江南); Sent to Xianyou Temple (送王十八归山寄题仙游寺); Lotus-Picking Song (采莲曲); Spring Walk by Qiantang Lake (钱塘湖春行); To Yin, Master of Music (寄殷协律); Spring on the Lake (春题湖上); Peach Blossoms at Dalin Temple (大林寺桃花); Night Snow (夜雪).
More by Bai Juyi
- A New Mountain Cottage Below Incense Burner Peak, Written on the East Wall香炉峰下新卜山居草堂初成偶题东壁
- Song of Everlasting Sorrow长恨歌
- Grass on the Ancient Plain: A Farewell赋得古原草送别
- A Question for Liu the Nineteenth问刘十九
- On the Night of the Fifteenth of the Eighth Month, on Duty in the Palace, Thinking of Yuan Zhen八月十五日夜禁中独直对月忆元九
- Evening Song by the River暮江吟
- On the Pond池上
- White Cloud Spring白云泉