After Writing a Poem
題詩後
Tí shī hòu
Two lines have taken years to finish, yet understanding remains uncertain. Read a brief meditation on poetic labor, friendship, and the wish to be heard.
Read the poem
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
- 二 èr two
- 句 jù lines
- 三 sān three
- 年 nián years
- 得 dé obtain
Word meanings — Line 2
- 一 yì one
- 吟 yín recitation
- 雙 shuāng both
- 淚 lèi tears
- 流 liú flow
Word meanings — Line 3
- 知 zhī understands
- 音 yīn sound
- 如 rú if
- 不 bù not
- 賞 shǎng appreciates
Word meanings — Line 4
- 歸 guī return
- 臥 wò lie down
- 故 gù old
- 山 shān mountain
- 秋 qiū autumn
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
二句三年得，
一吟雙淚流。
知音如不賞，
歸臥故山秋。
Translation
Two lines, won in three years;
one recitation, tears from both eyes.
If those who understand the music cannot value them,
I will go back to lie in autumn on my old mountain.
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?
二句三年得，
Pronunciation hint
sān
Reveal meaning and translation
三 — three
Two lines, won in three years;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
知音如不賞，
Pronunciation hint
rú
Reveal meaning and translation
如 — if
If those who understand the music cannot value them,
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
歸臥故山秋。
Pronunciation hint
gù
Reveal meaning and translation
故 — old
I will go back to lie in autumn on my old mountain.
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 — Three years and one voice
二句 is the small result, 三年 the long effort, and 得 the moment of finally obtaining it. “Won” gives 得 some of the difficulty suggested by the numbers. 一吟 changes the scale from years to a single recitation. 雙淚 makes the response immediate and physical. The poem gives the felt proportions of labor and release, rather than a record of the writer’s average output.
Lines 3–4 — The listener still missing
知音, literally someone who knows the sound, means a listener or reader who understands what the work is doing. The translation leaves “music” audible to connect that reader to the earlier recitation. 如 introduces a condition. Going back to the old mountain is the contemplated response if the work finds no such reader. The season in 故山秋 is the last image we get, without knowing whether the poem was heard or whether the speaker went back.
Form and tone
Four five-character lines turn from achievement to recital to a conditional withdrawal. The first pair is densely counted; the last opens into a mountain season. The title presents the poem as something written after another poem, so this is a complete reflective quatrain, not two abandoned lines of that other work.
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
Jia Dao’s reputation for painstaking composition often brings anecdotes to this poem. The four lines themselves give enough to read: effort, emotional performance, a desired audience, and the possibility of retreat. The site does not treat the numbers as independently verified biographical evidence.
Continue with Jia Dao and the memory reading path. Compare The Swordsman and Listening to the Qin using the reading connections below.
Sources
題詩後 — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. The transcription cites Shilin guangji, juan 7. Its graph 䨇 is normalized to 雙. 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
Jia Dao. “After Writing a Poem” (題詩後). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/after-writing-a-poem
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.