Dreaming of the South: Washed and Combed
夢江南·梳洗罷
Mèng jiāng nán · shū xǐ bà
After dressing, a woman waits beside the river as sails pass without stopping. Watch a whole day of expectation contract into the lyric's final image.
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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
- 梳 shū comb
- 洗 xǐ wash
- 罷 bà finished
Word meanings — Line 2
- 獨 dú alone
- 倚 yǐ lean
- 望 wàng overlooking
- 江 jiāng river
- 樓 lóu tower
Word meanings — Line 3
- 過 guò pass
- 盡 jìn all
- 千 qiān thousand
- 帆 fān sails
- 皆 jiē all
- 不 bú not
- 是 shì are
Word meanings — Line 4
- 斜 xié slanting
- 暉 huī sunlight
- 脈脈 mò mò lingering affectionately
- 水 shuǐ water
- 悠悠 yōu yōu flowing on and on
Word meanings — Line 5
- 腸 cháng heart
- 斷 duàn breaks
- 白蘋洲 bái pín zhōu islet with water fern
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
梳洗罷，
獨倚望江樓，
過盡千帆皆不是，
斜暉脈脈水悠悠，
腸斷白蘋洲。
Translation
Washed and combed,
alone she leans in the tower overlooking the river.
A thousand sails pass; none is the one.
Slanting light lingers tenderly; the water flows on and on.
Her heart breaks at the white water-fern islet.
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?
梳洗罷，
Pronunciation hint
xǐ
Reveal meaning and translation
洗 — wash
Washed and combed,
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
過盡千帆皆不是，
Pronunciation hint
fān
Reveal meaning and translation
帆 — sails
A thousand sails pass; none is the one.
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
腸斷白蘋洲。
Pronunciation hint
bái pín zhōu
Reveal meaning and translation
白蘋洲 — islet with water fern
Her heart breaks at the white water-fern islet.
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
Phrases 1–2 · Getting ready to wait
梳洗罷 gives an action already finished, washing and combing, before the purpose becomes clear. 獨倚 then places the watcher alone, leaning at the tower that looks over the river. The Chinese leaves the subject unexpressed. The English supplies “she” in keeping with the dramatic situation and lets the waiting show what the preparation was for.
Phrases 3–4 · Many boats and one expected return
帆, “sail,” stands for a boat. 過盡 follows the traffic all the way past, and 皆不是 rejects every boat in turn. Then the action slows. 脈脈, read mò mò, can suggest a lingering, affectionate look. The English gives that tenderness to the slanting light. 悠悠 lets the water extend on and on after the boats have failed to bring the person awaited.
Phrase 5 · A particular place for the grief
腸斷 gives the conventional physical force of heartbreak. The gaze that had been following sail after sail ends at an islet. 白蘋 is bái pín, a water fern, and the gloss names the plant so readers can keep the riverside image in view. Ministry of Education dictionary entry for 白蘋
Form and tone
This ci uses five phrases of 3, 5, 7, 7, and 5 characters. The tune title Meng Jiang Nan is not a statement that the character is asleep. The tiny opening and longer middle lines allow a short act of preparation to stretch into a day of waiting.
See ci for the larger formal pattern. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; a historical level/oblique grid is not inferred from those modern tones.
Historical context
Wen Tingyun’s lyrics belong to the early ci tradition later preserved in collections such as Huajian ji. Their speakers are crafted voices. The scene offers a woman’s waiting as a performance of longing without documenting the private experience of an identifiable woman.
Continue with Wen Tingyun and the love reading path. Compare Dreaming of the South: Countless Regrets and Night Rain: Sent North using the reading connections below.
Sources
夢江南 (梳洗罷) — 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
Wen Tingyun. “Dreaming of the South: Washed and Combed” (夢江南·梳洗罷). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/dreaming-south-washed-and-combed
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.