Army Song: New Music, Old Parting
從軍行七首（其二）
Cóng jūn xíng qī shǒu · qí èr
New pipa music cannot exhaust an old feeling of separation, and Wang Changling ends the song beneath a high autumn moon.
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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
- 琵 pí pipa
- 琶 pá lute
- 起 qǐ start
- 舞 wǔ dance
- 換 huàn change
- 新 xīn new
- 聲 shēng sound
Word meanings — Line 2
- 總 zǒng always
- 是 shì is
- 關 guān passes
- 山 shān mountains
- 舊 jiù old
- 別 bié parting
- 情 qíng feeling
Word meanings — Line 3
- 撩 liáo stirred
- 亂 luàn disordered
- 邊 biān frontier
- 愁 chóu sorrow
- 聽 tīng hear
- 不 bú not
- 盡 jìn end
Word meanings — Line 4
- 高 gāo high
- 高 gāo high
- 秋 qiū autumn
- 月 yuè moon
- 照 zhào shines
- 長 cháng Long
- 城 chéng Wall
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
琵琶起舞換新聲，
總是關山舊別情。
撩亂邊愁聽不盡，
高高秋月照長城。
Translation
The pipa starts the dance and changes to a new tune;
always it is the old parting at the passes.
Listening cannot exhaust that tangled frontier sorrow.
High, high, the autumn moon shines on the Great Wall.
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?
琵琶起舞換新聲，
Pronunciation hint
wǔ
Reveal meaning and translation
舞 — dance
The pipa starts the dance and changes to a new tune;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
撩亂邊愁聽不盡，
Pronunciation hint
chóu
Reveal meaning and translation
愁 — sorrow
Listening cannot exhaust that tangled frontier sorrow.
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
高高秋月照長城。
Pronunciation hint
yuè
Reveal meaning and translation
月 — moon
High, high, the autumn moon shines on the Great Wall.
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 change of tune
The 琵琶 accompanies dancing, and 換 makes a change the reader can expect to hear. 新聲 promises a new sound. 總是 then makes the song’s meaning return to 舊別情, the familiar feeling of parting. 關山 ties that feeling to the passes and mountains, so the English carries the frontier setting into the description of the tune.
Lines 3–4 · The ear yields to the eye
撩亂 makes the sorrow tangled and agitated. 聽不盡 measures it by the listener’s inability to hear its end. Then 高高 raises the eye from the performers to the autumn moon above the wall. The moon does not have to comment on the song. Its height and distance leave a space in which the old feeling can persist after the sound stops being described.
Form and tone
The second seven-character jueju in the sequence rhymes 聲, 情, and 城. 新 and 舊 make the opening contrast; repeated 高 expands the ending. The last line changes scale instead of offering a spoken conclusion. Modern pinyin is supplied without a historical tone table.
Historical context
Wang Changling's frontier music contains both a social performance and private persistence. Compare the watchtower song, where a named tune directs longing toward a chamber, and Shui Diao Ge Tou, where the speaker directly questions the moon that remains silent here.
Sources
《全唐詩》, juan 143, Wang Changling; the main reading in the Wikisource transcription is followed. A numbered poem is printed complete, not excerpted from within a poem. Punctuation is editorial.
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
Wang Changling. “Army Song: New Music, Old Parting” (從軍行七首（其二）). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/army-song-new-music
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.