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Tang Dynasty Jueju Liu Yuxi

Bamboo-Branch Song, I

竹枝詞二首·其一

Zhú zhī cí èr shǒu · qí yī

A song drifts across a river under uncertain skies. Discover how a pun on fair weather lets a young speaker wonder whether affection is returned.

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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

楊柳青青江水平，

yáng liǔ qīng qīng jiāng shuǐ píng

Green, green willows; the river runs level.

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 楊柳 yáng liǔ willows
  2. 青青 qīng qīng vivid green
  3. 江 jiāng river
  4. 水 shuǐ water
  5. 平 píng level
02

聞郎江上唱歌聲。

wén láng jiāng shàng chàng gē shēng

I hear my young man's singing on the river.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 聞 wén hear
  2. 郎 láng young man
  3. 江 jiāng river
  4. 上 shàng on
  5. 唱 chàng sing
  6. 歌 gē song
  7. 聲 shēng voice
03

東邊日出西邊雨，

dōng biān rì chū xī biān yǔ

Sun comes out in the east; in the west it rains.

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 東 dōng east
  2. 邊 biān side
  3. 日 rì sun
  4. 出 chū comes out
  5. 西 xī west
  6. 邊 biān side
  7. 雨 yǔ rain
04

道是無晴卻有晴。

dào shì wú qíng què yǒu qíng

You would say there is no clear weather—yet there is.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 道 dào say
  2. 是 shì is
  3. 無 wú no
  4. 晴 qíng clear weather
  5. 卻 què yet
  6. 有 yǒu has
  7. 晴 qíng clear weather

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

楊柳青青江水平，

聞郎江上唱歌聲。

東邊日出西邊雨，

道是無晴卻有晴。

Translation

Green, green willows; the river runs level.

I hear my young man's singing on the river.

Sun comes out in the east; in the west it rains.

You would say there is no clear weather—yet there is.

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?

    楊柳青青江水平，

    Pronunciation hint

    yáng liǔ

    Reveal meaning and translation

    楊柳 — willows

    Green, green willows; the river runs level.

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

    東邊日出西邊雨，

    Pronunciation hint

    chū

    Reveal meaning and translation

    出 — comes out

    Sun comes out in the east; in the west it rains.

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

    道是無晴卻有晴。

    Pronunciation hint

    qíng

    Reveal meaning and translation

    晴 — clear weather

    You would say there is no clear weather—yet there is.

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 — A voice across the river

青青 makes the willow green linger before 江水平 sets a level surface beside it. 聞 shifts from the eye to the ear. 郎 names the young man in the song’s speaking situation. The English “my young man” takes the voice as personal without making it an episode from Liu Yuxi’s own life.

Lines 3–4 — Two things that can both be true

The two sides of the sky offer contrary evidence, sun in the east and rain in the west. 道是 turns that into something someone might say about the weather, and 卻 overturns the first judgment. 晴 sounds like 情, affection, in the pinyin given here. The English keeps the weather so the contradiction remains visible. Read the final 晴 with the song from line two in mind. The beloved’s intentions can be heard through the same mixed evidence the eye has just seen.

Form and tone

The complete first of two Bamboo-Branch Songs has four seven-character lines. Despite 詞 in its title, this is presented here with the quatrain form, not as a Song-dynasty ci tune pattern. Repeated directional phrases prepare the balanced denial and reversal of the last line.

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

Bamboo-branch songs draw on a song tradition associated with the southwest. Liu Yuxi’s literary text preserves the effect of a singing voice and a spoken pun. Pinyin helps a modern Mandarin reader hear 晴 and 情 together, though it does not reconstruct the historical performance.

Continue with Liu Yuxi and the love reading path. Compare Red Beans and Dreaming of the South: Washed and Combed using the reading connections below.

Sources

全唐詩/卷365 — 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 Yuxi. “Bamboo-Branch Song, I” (竹枝詞二首·其一). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/bamboo-branch-song-liu-yuxi

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.