Climbing Yueyang Tower
登岳陽樓
Dēng Yuèyáng lóu
A long-imagined view of Dongting Lake opens onto immense water and unresolved human distress. 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.
Word meanings — Line 1
- 昔 xī formerly
- 聞 wén hear of
- 洞庭水 dòng tíng shuǐ Dongting's waters
Word meanings — Line 2
- 今 jīn now
- 上 shàng climb
- 岳陽樓 yuè yáng lóu Yueyang Tower
Word meanings — Line 3
- 吳楚 wú chǔ Wu and Chu
- 東南 dōng nán east and south
- 坼 chè split
Word meanings — Line 4
- 乾坤 qián kūn heaven and earth
- 日夜 rì yè day and night
- 浮 fú float
Word meanings — Line 5
- 親朋 qīn péng family and friends
- 無 wú none
- 一字 yí zì one written word
Word meanings — Line 6
- 老病 lǎo bìng old and ill
- 有 yǒu have
- 孤舟 gū zhōu solitary boat
Word meanings — Line 7
- 戎馬 róng mǎ war horses or warfare
- 關山 guān shān mountain passes
- 北 běi north
Word meanings — Line 8
- 憑軒 píng xuān lean by the railing
- 涕泗 tì sì tears and weeping
- 流 liú flow
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
昔聞洞庭水，
今上岳陽樓。
吳楚東南坼，
乾坤日夜浮。
親朋無一字，
老病有孤舟。
戎馬關山北，
憑軒涕泗流。
Translation
Long ago I heard of Dongting's waters;
today I climb Yueyang Tower.
Wu and Chu are split apart to east and south;
heaven and earth float day and night.
From family and friends, not a single written word;
old and ill, I have one solitary boat.
War continues north of the mountain passes;
leaning by the railing, I cannot stop my tears.
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?
昔聞洞庭水，
Pronunciation hint
dòng tíng shuǐ
Reveal meaning and translation
洞庭水 — Dongting's waters
Long ago I heard of Dongting's waters;
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
親朋無一字，
Pronunciation hint
qīn péng
Reveal meaning and translation
親朋 — family and friends
From family and friends, not a single written word;
-
Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
憑軒涕泗流。
Pronunciation hint
píng xuān
Reveal meaning and translation
憑軒 — lean by the railing
leaning by the railing, I cannot stop my tears.
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: from hearing to standing there
昔 and 今 make a direct temporal pair. The speaker formerly heard of Dongting’s water and now ascends the tower. The verbs 聞 and 上 take us from someone else’s account to a present viewpoint. The poem saves its vast description for what that climb lets him see.
Lines 3–4: the lake enlarges the world
坼 is a forceful splitting verb. The water seems wide enough to part the regions named Wu and Chu. 乾坤 means heaven and earth, which 浮 lets the water appear to carry. “Day and night” sustains the image in time as well as extending it in space.
Lines 5–6: nothing from others, one boat of his own
無 and 有 organize a sharp balance. 一字 means even one written word from family or friends. What the speaker has is a 孤舟, a single boat, while 老病 brings age and illness into the view. The English keeps the boat solitary so the previous vastness can make its isolation felt.
Lines 7–8: the view does not end at the lake
戎馬 names warfare through military horses. 北 shifts attention to fighting beyond the mountain passes. 憑軒 anchors the speaker again at the railing, where tears flow. The last pair brings private uncertainty and distant war together in a single observer’s position.
Form and tone
The five-character regulated verse places its largest image directly before its smallest inventory of human resources. 樓, 浮, 舟, and 流 carry the rhyme. The opening upward movement ends in a figure leaning and weeping.
See the regulated verse guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
Yueyang Tower overlooks Dongting Lake. The title names a celebrated view, but the poem refuses to make arrival there a complete satisfaction. A famous landscape remains part of a world in which other people cannot be reached.
Continue with Du Fu or the nature shelf.
Sources
Chinese text compared with 登岳陽樓, 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 Yueyang Tower” (登岳陽樓). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/climbing-yueyang-tower
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.