A Traveler’s Song
客中行
Kè zhōng xíng
A host’s fragrant wine makes the boundary between home and elsewhere disappear. 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
- 蘭陵 lán líng Lanling
- 美酒 měi jiǔ fine wine
- 鬱金 yù jīn yujin, a plant used for its fragrance
- 香 xiāng fragrance
Word meanings — Line 2
- 玉碗 yù wǎn jade-like fine bowl
- 盛來 chéng lái served up
- 琥珀 hǔ pò amber
- 光 guāng glow
Word meanings — Line 3
- 但使 dàn shǐ if only
- 主人 zhǔ rén host
- 能 néng can
- 醉客 zuì kè make the guest drunk
Word meanings — Line 4
- 不知 bù zhī do not know
- 何處 hé chù what place
- 是 shì is
- 他鄉 tā xiāng a place away from home
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
蘭陵美酒鬱金香，
玉碗盛來琥珀光。
但使主人能醉客，
不知何處是他鄉。
Translation
Lanling's fine wine has the fragrance of yujin;
served in a fine bowl, it glows like amber.
If only the host can get the traveler drunk,
how can he tell that he is far from home?
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?
蘭陵美酒鬱金香，
Pronunciation hint
lán líng
Reveal meaning and translation
蘭陵 — Lanling
Lanling's fine wine has the fragrance of yujin;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
但使主人能醉客，
Pronunciation hint
dàn shǐ
Reveal meaning and translation
但使 — if only
If only the host can get the traveler drunk,
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
不知何處是他鄉。
Pronunciation hint
bù zhī
Reveal meaning and translation
不知 — do not know
how can he tell that he is far from home?
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.
Line-by-line notes →Self-check at your own pace. No score or progress is saved. Open only the answers you want included when printing.
Line-by-line notes
Lines 1–2 — How the wine is presented
Lanling gives the wine a place, and 鬱金香 gives it a smell. Here 鬱金 is an aromatic associated with the wine. The English keeps yujin without specifying a modern flower. 盛 is chéng, filling or serving in a vessel. 光 belongs to the amber-like look of the served wine. The two lines lead from fragrance to the glow of the bowl.
Lines 3–4 — The condition of feeling at home
但使 makes the last two lines one conditional thought. 醉客 is causative, so the host can make the guest drunk. The two roles, 主人 and 客, establish who belongs in the place and who has arrived from elsewhere. 他鄉 means a place away from home. Our final question turns 不知 into the guest's inability to feel that distinction after being welcomed. 客 in the third line and 他鄉 in the fourth carry the feeling more precisely than a general statement about enjoying wine.
Form and tone
The first two seven-character lines appeal to smell, vessel, and color. The conditional 但使 then turns those details into a claim about hospitality. 香, 光, and 鄉 supply a rhyme that makes the final word recall the wine’s opening fragrance.
See the quatrain guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The guest speaks through the experience of being welcomed. Reading this beside a homesick poem is useful because the same condition, being a 客, can produce a very different response. It is a literary scene of hospitality, not advice about drinking.
Continue with Li Bai or the wine shelf.
Sources
Chinese text compared with 客中行, 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
Li Bai. “A Traveler’s Song” (客中行). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/a-travelers-song
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.