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Tang Dynasty Lüshi Du Fu

Climbing High

登高

Dēng gāo

An immense autumn river view is set against illness, age, and the narrowing life of a traveler. Read the Chinese, pinyin, word meanings, and original English translation.

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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

風急天高猿嘯哀，

fēng jí tiān gāo yuán xiào āi

The wind is sharp, the sky high, the gibbons' cries mournful;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 風急 fēng jí wind sharp
  2. 天高 tiān gāo sky high
  3. 猿嘯 yuán xiào gibbons' cries
  4. 哀 āi mournful
02

渚清沙白鳥飛回。

zhǔ qīng shā bái niǎo fēi huí

the islet clear, the sand white, birds turning in flight.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 渚清 zhǔ qīng islet clear
  2. 沙白 shā bái sand white
  3. 鳥 niǎo birds
  4. 飛回 fēi huí circle in flight
03

無邊落木蕭蕭下，

wú biān luò mù xiāo xiāo xià

Boundless falling leaves rustle downward;

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 無邊 wú biān boundless
  2. 落木 luò mù falling tree leaves
  3. 蕭蕭 xiāo xiāo rustling
  4. 下 xià descend
04

不盡長江滾滾來。

bú jìn cháng jiāng gǔn gǔn lái

the endless Yangtze rolls and rolls toward me.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 不盡 bú jìn endless
  2. 長江 cháng jiāng Yangtze
  3. 滾滾 gǔn gǔn rolling
  4. 來 lái come
05

萬里悲秋常作客，

wàn lǐ bēi qiū cháng zuò kè

Far from home, grieving autumn, I am always a traveler;

Word meanings — Line 5
  1. 萬里 wàn lǐ far away
  2. 悲秋 bēi qiū grieve in autumn
  3. 常 cháng always
  4. 作客 zuò kè live away from home
06

百年多病獨登臺。

bǎi nián duō bìng dú dēng tái

old and often ill, I climb this terrace alone.

Word meanings — Line 6
  1. 百年 bǎi nián a lifetime
  2. 多病 duō bìng much illness
  3. 獨 dú alone
  4. 登臺 dēng tái climb a terrace
07

艱難苦恨繁霜鬢，

jiān nán kǔ hèn fán shuāng bìn

Hard times and bitter regret thicken the frost at my temples;

Word meanings — Line 7
  1. 艱難 jiān nán hardship
  2. 苦恨 kǔ hèn bitter regret
  3. 繁 fán multiply
  4. 霜鬢 shuāng bìn frost-white temples
08

潦倒新停濁酒杯。

liáo dǎo xīn tíng zhuó jiǔ bēi

worn down, I have lately put aside my cup of cloudy wine.

Word meanings — Line 8
  1. 潦倒 liáo dǎo worn down
  2. 新 xīn lately
  3. 停 tíng stop
  4. 濁酒杯 zhuó jiǔ bēi cup of cloudy wine

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

風急天高猿嘯哀，

渚清沙白鳥飛回。

無邊落木蕭蕭下，

不盡長江滾滾來。

萬里悲秋常作客，

百年多病獨登臺。

艱難苦恨繁霜鬢，

潦倒新停濁酒杯。

Translation

The wind is sharp, the sky high, the gibbons' cries mournful;

the islet clear, the sand white, birds turning in flight.

Boundless falling leaves rustle downward;

the endless Yangtze rolls and rolls toward me.

Far from home, grieving autumn, I am always a traveler;

old and often ill, I climb this terrace alone.

Hard times and bitter regret thicken the frost at my temples;

worn down, I have lately put aside my cup of cloudy wine.

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?

    風急天高猿嘯哀，

    Pronunciation hint

    fēng jí

    Reveal meaning and translation

    風急 — wind sharp

    The wind is sharp, the sky high, the gibbons' cries mournful;

  2. Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?

    萬里悲秋常作客，

    Pronunciation hint

    wàn lǐ

    Reveal meaning and translation

    萬里 — far away

    Far from home, grieving autumn, I am always a traveler;

  3. Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?

    潦倒新停濁酒杯。

    Pronunciation hint

    liáo dǎo

    Reveal meaning and translation

    潦倒 — worn down

    worn down, I have lately put aside my cup of cloudy wine.

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 view comes in short bursts

Wind, sky, and a gibbon’s cry take the first line. Islet, sand, and wheeling birds answer in the second. Each line accumulates small phrases. The English keeps the rapid changes of attention through commas, so that the high view can include both sharp sound and small changes of color.

Lines 3–4: down and toward the speaker

無邊 and 不盡 broaden the view. 落木 here is falling foliage, and 蕭蕭 lets the leaves be heard as they go down. 滾滾 gives the Yangtze repeated forward motion. Read the two final verbs 下 and 來: the leaves fall and the river rolls toward the position from which the poet is watching.

Lines 5–6: a lifetime inside the view

萬里 expresses distance from home, while 百年 means the span of a human life. 常作客 makes living away a persistent condition. 多病 and 獨 narrow the person’s immediate possibilities. The translation’s “old and often ill” places that lifetime in the climber’s present without treating 百年 as an exact age.

Lines 7–8: the cup left aside

霜鬢 brings the autumn’s frost to the speaker’s white temples. 潦倒 gives the last line a sense of being worn down. 新停 says the cup was put aside recently. Ending on this ordinary object makes illness or hardship legible in a habit that has changed. The poem leaves the immediate medical cause open.

Form and tone

This seven-character regulated verse sustains close pairing beyond its central couplets. 蕭蕭下 and 滾滾來 create opposite directions within the same view. The opening 哀 joins 回, 來, 臺, and 杯 in the poem’s rhyme, which continues through the shift from landscape to personal circumstance.

See the regulated verse guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.

Historical context

Climbing to a height conventionally offers a wider view. Here that widening does not produce relief. It makes the traveler’s age, distance from home, and solitude more sharply perceptible. Standard traditional 滾 is used for the linked transcription’s 滚.

Continue with Du Fu or the time and memory shelf.

Sources

Chinese text compared with 登高, public transcription on Wikisource. Punctuation is editorial; the English translation 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

Du Fu. “Climbing High” (登高). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/climbing-high

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