A Night on the Tonglu River, Sent to Old Friends
宿桐廬江寄廣陵舊遊
Sù Tónglú jiāng jì Guǎnglíng jiù yóu
River sounds surround a solitary boat while the traveler sends his thoughts toward old companions in Guangling. Read the Chinese, pinyin, word meanings, and original English translation.
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Read the original and its translation together. Open a line’s word meanings for a closer look.
About the text and pronunciation
The simplified view changes character forms, not the edition. Notes and sources retain the cited text.
The Chinese source is shown in traditional characters by default, with a simplified view available. Pinyin is modern standard Mandarin, a reading aid, not Tang or Song pronunciation.
Word by word, in the order of the line. A gloss is a crib. It is not the translation.
Word meanings — Line 1
- 山暝 shān míng mountains darken
- 聽 tīng hear
- 猿 yuán gibbons
- 愁 chóu grieve
Word meanings — Line 2
- 滄江 cāng jiāng blue-gray river
- 急 jí swiftly
- 夜 yè at night
- 流 liú flow
Word meanings — Line 3
- 風 fēng wind
- 鳴 míng make sound
- 兩岸 liǎng àn both banks
- 葉 yè leaves
Word meanings — Line 4
- 月 yuè moon
- 照 zhào shine on
- 一 yì one
- 孤舟 gū zhōu solitary boat
Word meanings — Line 5
- 建德 jiàn dé Jiande
- 非 fēi not
- 吾土 wú tǔ my home region
Word meanings — Line 6
- 維揚 wéi yáng Weiyang (Yangzhou)
- 憶 yì remember
- 舊遊 jiù yóu old companions
Word meanings — Line 7
- 還 hái also
- 將 jiāng take
- 兩行淚 liǎng háng lèi two tracks of tears
Word meanings — Line 8
- 遙寄 yáo jì send far away
- 海西頭 hǎi xī tóu western edge of the sea
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
山暝聽猿愁，
滄江急夜流。
風鳴兩岸葉，
月照一孤舟。
建德非吾土，
維揚憶舊遊。
還將兩行淚，
遙寄海西頭。
Translation
The mountains darken; hearing the gibbons, I grieve.
The blue-gray river runs fast through the night.
Wind sounds through the leaves on both banks;
the moon shines on one solitary boat.
Jiande is far from my own home;
I remember old companions in Weiyang.
And these two tracks of tears
I send far away, toward the sea's western edge.
Try it from memory
After reading, recall the underlined word or phrase in each line. Say its meaning before opening the answer. These prompts use the text edition printed above.
-
Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?
山暝聽猿愁，
Pronunciation hint
shān míng
Reveal meaning and translation
山暝 — mountains darken
The mountains darken; hearing the gibbons, I grieve.
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
建德非吾土，
Pronunciation hint
jiàn dé
Reveal meaning and translation
建德 — Jiande
Jiande is far from my own home;
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Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
遙寄海西頭。
Pronunciation hint
yáo jì
Reveal meaning and translation
遙寄 — send far away
I send far away, toward the sea's western edge.
One more question: what changes?
Compare the opening and closing lines. What changes in the scene, the speaker’s attention, or the feeling? Choose a Chinese word as evidence, then compare your reading with the notes. More than one answer may be reasonable.
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Line-by-line notes
Lines 1–2 · A river still running at night
暝 makes the mountains grow dark while 聽 marks the gibbons as something heard. 愁 can color the sound, and the English gives the sorrow to the listener. 急 describes the river’s quick flow through the night. The verse gives both the gibbons and the current ways of being present when the light is failing.
Lines 3–4 · Two banks and one boat
風鳴 and 月照 are parallel actions, one heard and the other seen. 兩岸 spreads the leaves and their sound along both sides. 一孤舟 puts a single boat under the moon. The wider the sound reaches, the more isolated that point of light can feel.
Lines 5–6 · The people elsewhere
非吾土 explains the separation through place. Jiande is where the traveler is, and the people remembered are in Weiyang. 維揚 and the title’s 廣陵 both point to Yangzhou. 舊遊 can mean former companions or earlier outings. The English chooses companions, giving the memory people to whom it can be sent.
Lines 7–8 · A message made of tears
行 is háng, a line or track, so 兩行淚 gives the tears two paths down the face. 遙寄 repeats the title’s act of sending, now across a distance that the poem has made felt. The English carries the object from the seventh line to the verb in the eighth. What the speaker sends toward the sea’s western edge is this visible sign of remembrance.
Form and tone
The five-character regulated verse divides between a nighttime scene and an address toward absent friends. 愁, 流, 舟, 遊, and 頭 carry the rhyme. A wide soundscape becomes an attempted emotional message.
See the regulated verse guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The place of the night’s lodging is contrasted with the place of remembered companionship. The poem need not locate the speaker’s entire biography to make 非吾土 consequential: he is here, and those he knows are elsewhere.
Continue with Meng Haoran or the homesickness shelf.
Sources
Chinese text compared with 宿桐廬江寄廣陵舊遊, public transcription on Wikisource. Punctuation is editorial; the English translation and reading notes are original to PoemWell.
English translation, gloss, and notes by PoemWell. The translation is original to this site.
The Chinese source is shown in traditional characters by default, with a simplified view available. Pinyin is modern standard Mandarin, a reading aid, not Tang or Song pronunciation.
Updated .
Cite this reading
Meng Haoran. “A Night on the Tonglu River, Sent to Old Friends” (宿桐廬江寄廣陵舊遊). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/a-night-on-the-tonglu-river
Credit the poet for the Chinese original and PoemWell for this translation and commentary. Use the permanent page link above; source editions are listed separately.