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Sòng Zǐ Zhōu Lǐ Shǐ JūnSeeing Off Prefect Li of Zizhou 送梓州李使君
Wang Wei on Sichuan hills after night rain, with a hundred streams from the treetops.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
万壑树参天
wàn hè shù cān tiān
千山响杜鹃
qiān shān xiǎng dù juān
山中一夜雨
shān zhōng yī yè yǔ
树杪百重泉
shù miǎo bǎi zhòng quán
Simplified characters; traditional title: 送梓州李使君. 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
In ten thousand valleys the trees reach the sky;
in a thousand hills the cuckoos call.
After a night of rain in the mountains,
from the treetops, a hundred streams of falling water.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Wang Wei on Sichuan hills after night rain, with a hundred streams from the treetops. The scene stays with you.
Background
Wang Wei on Sichuan hills after night rain, with a hundred streams from the treetops.
Key words
- 万壑 wàn hè
- key word in the poem
- 杜鹃 dù juān
- key word in the poem
- 树杪 shù miǎo
- key word in the poem
About the poet: Wang Wei
Wang Wei was a poet, painter, musician and court official. A devout Buddhist, he wrote spare, luminous landscape verse; later critics said there is "a painting in his poems and a poem in his paintings." He is sometimes called the "Buddha of Poetry."
Lifetime: c. 699–761. Other famous works: Miscellaneous Poem (You Have Come from Home) (杂诗); Farewell (Dismounting to Drink) (送别); Autumn Evening in the Mountains (山居秋暝); Longing (相思); Deer Park (鹿柴); Bamboo Grove Retreat (竹里馆); Farewell to Yuan the Second on His Mission to Anxi (送元二使安西); Thinking of My Brothers on the Double Ninth (九月九日忆山东兄弟); Birdsong in the Ravine (鸟鸣涧); Joys of the Countryside (田园乐); Floating on the Han River (汉江临泛); In the Mountains (山中); Farewell in the Mountains (山中送别); Long Rain at Wangchuan (积雨辋川庄作); Magnolia Bank (辛夷坞); Seeing Off Shen Zifu (送沈子福之江东); Reply to Vice-Prefect Zhang (酬张少府); A Quiet Matter (书事); Song of Youth (少年行); My Retreat at Zhongnan (终南别业); Seeing Off Prefect Li of Zizhou (送梓州李使君).
More by Wang Wei
- Farewell to Yuan Er on His Mission to Anxi送元二使安西
- Deer Park鹿柴
- Bamboo Grove Retreat竹里馆
- Thinking of My Brothers on the Double Ninth九月九日忆山东兄弟
- Farewell (Dismounting to Drink)送别
- Autumn Evening in the Mountains山居秋暝
- Longing相思
- Miscellaneous Poem (You Have Come from Home)杂诗