Cherishing the Peonies: I
惜牡丹花二首（其一）
Xī mǔ dān huā èr shǒu · qí yī
Only two peony branches remain; fear of tomorrow’s wind sends their admirer out with a light. Read the original Chinese with pinyin, word meanings, an original English translation, and notes.
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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
- 惆悵 chóu chàng sorrowful
- 階前 jiē qián before the steps
- 紅牡丹 hóng mǔ dān red peonies
Word meanings — Line 2
- 晚來 wǎn lái by evening
- 唯有 wéi yǒu only have
- 兩枝 liǎng zhī two branches
- 殘 cán remaining
Word meanings — Line 3
- 明朝 míng zhāo tomorrow morning
- 風起 fēng qǐ wind rises
- 應 yīng will likely
- 吹盡 chuī jìn blow away completely
Word meanings — Line 4
- 夜 yè at night
- 惜 xī cherish
- 衰紅 shuāi hóng fading red flowers
- 把火 bǎ huǒ hold a flame
- 看 kàn look
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
惆悵階前紅牡丹，
晚來唯有兩枝殘。
明朝風起應吹盡，
夜惜衰紅把火看。
Translation
Grieving over the red peonies before the steps,
by evening only two fading stems remain.
Tomorrow morning's wind will likely blow them all away;
tonight, cherishing the fading red, I hold a light to look.
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.
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Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?
惆悵階前紅牡丹，
Pronunciation hint
chóu chàng
Reveal meaning and translation
惆悵 — sorrowful
Grieving over the red peonies before the steps,
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
明朝風起應吹盡，
Pronunciation hint
míng zhāo
Reveal meaning and translation
明朝 — tomorrow morning
Tomorrow morning's wind will likely blow them all away;
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Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
夜惜衰紅把火看。
Pronunciation hint
shuāi hóng
Reveal meaning and translation
衰紅 — fading red flowers
tonight, cherishing the fading red, I hold a light to look.
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: the count at dusk
階前 puts the flowers in a small place the speaker can revisit. 惆悵 gives the mood first, then 晚來 and 唯有 make its cause visible: by evening there are only two stems left. 殘 qualifies what remains as already fading. The English says “stems” for 枝 so the reader can picture two parts of the plant, without assuming that two intact blossoms have just opened.
Lines 3–4: tomorrow’s wind, tonight’s light
Read 明朝 as míng zhāo, “tomorrow morning.” 應吹盡 is the speaker’s prediction: the wind will likely finish what decline has begun. The last line comes back from that imagined morning to 夜, the present night. 把火看 means taking a flame to see by. The English keeps the looking as an action the speaker can still take. The light gives the fading red one more moment of attention.
Form and tone
The seven-character quatrain passes through evening, tomorrow morning, and the present night. That departure from simple chronological order matters: imagining tomorrow produces tonight’s action. 丹, 殘, and 看 occupy the rhyme positions; the final 看 is read kàn in the modern pronunciation supplied here.
See the jueju guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin; no historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The first poem in this pair makes anticipation visible as a behavior. Instead of merely saying that beauty passes, it shows someone choosing to look after dark because daylight may come too late. The second poem in the source continues the attention to fallen petals, but is not silently folded into this four-line reading.
Read more by Bai Juyi, or follow the nature shelf. The English translation, gloss, and notes are original to PoemWell.
Sources
惜牡丹花二首, public transcription. The first poem of the pair, with 唯有兩枝殘 and 夜惜衰紅把火看. Punctuation and reading-line divisions are 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
Bai Juyi. “Cherishing the Peonies: I” (惜牡丹花二首（其一）). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/cherishing-peonies-one
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.