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Tang Dynasty Jueju Liu Zongyuan

After Rain, Walking to the River Ferry

雨晴至江渡

Yǔ qíng zhì jiāng dù

After rain, a walker follows a path uncovered by receding water. Read how driftwood caught high in the trees reveals the force of the vanished flood.

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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.

01

江雨初晴思遠步，

jiāng yǔ chū qíng sī yuǎn bù

The river rain has just cleared; I want a long walk.

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 江 jiāng river
  2. 雨 yǔ rain
  3. 初 chū just
  4. 晴 qíng clears
  5. 思 sī wish
  6. 遠 yuǎn far
  7. 步 bù walk
02

日西獨向愚溪渡。

rì xī dú xiàng yú xī dù

With the sun in the west, I go alone to the Yu Stream ferry.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 日 rì sun
  2. 西 xī west
  3. 獨 dú alone
  4. 向 xiàng toward
  5. 愚 yú Yu
  6. 溪 xī stream
  7. 渡 dù ferry
03

渡頭水落村逕成，

dù tóu shuǐ luò cūn jìng chéng

At the crossing, receding water restores the village path;

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 渡 dù ferry
  2. 頭 tóu head
  3. 水 shuǐ water
  4. 落 luò falls
  5. 村 cūn village
  6. 逕 jìng path
  7. 成 chéng appears
04

撩亂浮槎在高樹。

liáo luàn fú chá zài gāo shù

tangled driftwood is caught high in the trees.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 撩 liáo tangled
  2. 亂 luàn disordered
  3. 浮 fú floating
  4. 槎 chá driftwood
  5. 在 zài in
  6. 高 gāo high
  7. 樹 shù trees

English translation by PoemWell.

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Original

江雨初晴思遠步，

日西獨向愚溪渡。

渡頭水落村逕成，

撩亂浮槎在高樹。

Translation

The river rain has just cleared; I want a long walk.

With the sun in the west, I go alone to the Yu Stream ferry.

At the crossing, receding water restores the village path;

tangled driftwood is caught high in the trees.

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.

  1. Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?

    江雨初晴思遠步，

    Pronunciation hint

    qíng

    Reveal meaning and translation

    晴 — clears

    The river rain has just cleared; I want a long walk.

  2. Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?

    渡頭水落村逕成，

    Pronunciation hint

    luò

    Reveal meaning and translation

    落 — falls

    At the crossing, receding water restores the village path;

  3. Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?

    撩亂浮槎在高樹。

    Pronunciation hint

    chá

    Reveal meaning and translation

    槎 — driftwood

    tangled driftwood is caught high in the trees.

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 →

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Line-by-line notes

Lines 1–2 · The impulse to walk

初晴 places the walk just after the rain clears. 思遠步 voices the wish to go some distance on foot, while 日西 gives that wish a time of day. In 獨向愚溪渡, 獨 sets the speaker apart and 向 supplies a destination. 愚溪 is the name Yu Stream. The next line’s 渡頭 tells us the speaker has reached the ferry and can see the bank close up.

Lines 3–4 · Reconstructing the waterline

水落 and 村逕成 put two changes in sequence. As the water recedes, the village path takes shape again. 逕 is an alternate graph for 徑, “path.” Look next at the height of the debris. 浮槎 is wood that had been floating and could be understood as a raft in some settings. The English chooses “driftwood” here and uses “caught” to explain why it now sits high in the trees. The returning path and the stranded wood let the reader infer the size of the flood from where it has left things.

Form and tone

The four seven-character lines move from the desire to walk to two concrete discoveries at the crossing. Repetition of 渡 connects the destination in line two to the closer view in line three. The unexpected last image replaces an explicit account of the storm.

See jueju for the larger formal pattern. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; a historical level/oblique grid is not inferred from those modern tones.

Historical context

Yu Stream is part of Liu Zongyuan’s Yongzhou landscape. The speaker is a walker examining the aftermath of weather. A political allegory is possible as a later reading, but the text’s own sequence can be understood through floodwater, a returning path, and stranded wood.

Continue with Liu Zongyuan and the nature reading path. Compare The West Stream at Chuzhou and An Old Fisherman using the reading connections below.

Sources

雨晴至江渡 — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. The displayed traditional text follows this reading. Punctuation and line breaks are editorial. Translation, glosses, 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

Liu Zongyuan. “After Rain, Walking to the River Ferry” (雨晴至江渡). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/after-rain-at-the-river-ferry

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.