Home › Poems › Visiting a Village West of the Mountains
Yóu Shān Xī CūnVisiting a Village West of the Mountains 游山西村
Lu You: "just when the road seems to end, another village appears."
Original Chinese text with pinyin
莫笑农家腊酒浑
mò xiào nóng jiā là jiǔ hún
丰年留客足鸡豚
fēng nián liú kè zú jī tún
山重水复疑无路
shān chóng shuǐ fù yí wú lù
柳暗花明又一村
liǔ àn huā míng yòu yī cūn
箫鼓追随春社近
xiāo gǔ zhuī suí chūn shè jìn
衣冠简朴古风存
yī guān jiǎn pǔ gǔ fēng cún
从今若许闲乘月
cóng jīn ruò xǔ xián chéng yuè
拄杖无时夜叩门
zhǔ zhàng wú shí yè kòu mén
Simplified characters; traditional title: 遊山西村.
English translation
Do not laugh at the farmers' cloudy year-end wine;
in a good harvest year they keep guests with plenty of chicken and pork.
Mountain upon mountain, stream upon stream — the path seems gone;
then dark willows, bright flowers — another village.
Flutes and drums follow one another, the spring festival near;
clothes and caps are plain, old customs still alive.
From now on, if you allow me to come at leisure by moonlight,
I will tap at your gate with my staff at any hour of night.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The second couplet has become a proverb: after mountains and rivers seem to close every path, willows and blossoms open onto a new village, meaning hope appears when you least expect it. Around it, Lu You paints a warm portrait of rural hospitality and simple customs. The ending, imagining knocking on doors by moonlight with his staff, is affectionate and relaxed.
Background
Written in 1167 when Lu You had been dismissed from office and was living at home near Shaoxing.
Key words
- 腊酒 là jiǔ
- wine brewed in the twelfth month
- 山重水复 shān chóng shuǐ fù
- mountains upon mountains, waters upon waters
- 柳暗花明 liǔ àn huā míng
- dark willows and bright flowers
- 春社 chūn shè
- the spring sacrifice to the earth god
About the poet: Lu You
Lu You is the most prolific poet in Chinese history, with nearly ten thousand poems. Throughout his life he urged the Southern Song to recover the north from the Jurchen Jin; patriotism and rural life are his two great themes.
Lifetime: 1125–1210. Other famous works: Visiting a Village West of the Mountains (游山西村); To My Son (示儿); Phoenix Hairpin (钗头凤); Plum Blossom Quatrain (梅花绝句); Spring Rain Clearing in Lin'an (临安春雨初霁); Reading on a Winter Night (冬夜读书示子聿).
Names from this poem
More by Lu You
- To My Son示儿
- Plum Blossom Quatrain梅花绝句
- Spring Rain Clearing in Lin'an临安春雨初霁
- Reading on a Winter Night冬夜读书示子聿