A Dewdrop
詠露珠
Yǒng lù zhū
A dewdrop rests on an autumn lotus like a jewel on a jade plate. Watch how the drop's movement reveals its shape in this miniature study of attention.
Read the poem
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
- 秋 qiū autumn
- 荷 hé lotus
- 一 yì one
- 滴 dī drop
- 露 lù dew
Word meanings — Line 2
- 清 qīng clear
- 夜 yè night
- 墜 zhuì falls
- 玄 xuán dark
- 天 tiān sky
Word meanings — Line 3
- 將 jiāng take
- 來 lái bring
- 玉 yù jade
- 盤 pán plate
- 上 shàng onto
Word meanings — Line 4
- 不 bú not
- 定 dìng still
- 始 shǐ only then
- 知 zhī know
- 圓 yuán round
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
秋荷一滴露，
清夜墜玄天。
將來玉盤上，
不定始知圓。
Translation
On an autumn lotus, one drop of dew,
fallen through the clear night from the dark sky.
Bring it onto a jade plate:
only when it will not stay still do you know it is round.
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?
秋荷一滴露，
Pronunciation hint
yì
Reveal meaning and translation
一 — one
On an autumn lotus, one drop of dew,
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
將來玉盤上，
Pronunciation hint
yù
Reveal meaning and translation
玉 — jade
Bring it onto a jade plate:
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
不定始知圓。
Pronunciation hint
shǐ
Reveal meaning and translation
始 — only then
only when it will not stay still do you know it is round.
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 →Self-check at your own pace. No score or progress is saved. Open only the answers you want included when printing.
Line-by-line notes
Lines 1–2 · One drop under a whole sky
一滴 makes the thing to be observed countably small. 墜 gives it a descent, from the dark expanse of 玄天 to the autumn lotus. 清夜 lets the scene be both clear and dark. The opening offers a poetic account of where the drop comes from, an immense origin beside the small leaf on which it appears.
Lines 3–4 · Shape found through motion
將來 here means to take and bring the drop. English uses the imperative “bring it” to move from the distant sky to a surface within reach. 玉盤 names the jade plate, and its smoothness can also recall the lotus leaf. 不定 describes a drop that cannot stay settled on the surface. 始知 says only then does one know it is round. The word “only” matters. The poem asks the reader to discover shape from how the drop behaves, after first offering a still image of it on the lotus.
Form and tone
Four five-character lines make a compact object poem. The first half presents the drop’s appearance and imagined origin; the second half stages an observation. 始, “only then,” turns the ending into a discovery rather than a decorative description of something already known.
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
This poem belongs to Wei Yingwu’s short poems on things. Its reading can remain literary and observational without treating it as a scientific experiment reported under controlled conditions. Read Amber next to compare a fleeting drop with something that appears to preserve time.
Continue with Wei Yingwu and the nature reading path. Compare Amber and Looking at Lake Dongting using the reading connections below.
Sources
詠露珠 — 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
Wei Yingwu. “A Dewdrop” (詠露珠). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/dew-wei-yingwu
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.