Early Spring, Presented to Zhang Eighteen, I
早春呈水部張十八員外二首·其一
Zǎo chūn chéng shuǐ bù Zhāng shí bā yuán wài èr shǒu · qí yī
Fine rain reveals the first hint of spring grass on the capital's streets. Read how a distant green changes when the observer moves closer.
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
- 天 tiān capital
- 街 jiē street
- 小 xiǎo light
- 雨 yǔ rain
- 潤 rùn moistens
- 如 rú like
- 酥 sū butter
Word meanings — Line 2
- 草 cǎo grass
- 色 sè color
- 遙 yáo from afar
- 看 kàn look
- 近 jìn near
- 卻 què yet
- 無 wú none
Word meanings — Line 3
- 最 zuì most
- 是 shì is
- 一 yì one
- 年 nián year
- 春 chūn spring
- 好 hǎo fine
- 處 chù moment
Word meanings — Line 4
- 絕 jué far
- 勝 shèng surpasses
- 煙 yān mist-like
- 柳 liǔ willows
- 滿 mǎn fill
- 皇 huáng imperial
- 都 dū capital
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
天街小雨潤如酥，
草色遙看近卻無。
最是一年春好處，
絕勝煙柳滿皇都。
Translation
Light rain on the capital's avenue is soft as butter;
grass looks green from a distance, but close up the color vanishes.
This is spring's finest moment in the whole year,
far better than misty willows filling the imperial city.
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?
天街小雨潤如酥，
Pronunciation hint
yǔ
Reveal meaning and translation
雨 — rain
Light rain on the capital's avenue is soft as butter;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
最是一年春好處，
Pronunciation hint
nián
Reveal meaning and translation
年 — year
This is spring's finest moment in the whole year,
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
絕勝煙柳滿皇都。
Pronunciation hint
liǔ
Reveal meaning and translation
柳 — willows
far better than misty willows filling the imperial city.
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 — Green at a distance
小雨 describes light rain on a street of the capital. The verb 潤 gives that rain an effect, moistening the ground, and 如酥 compares its touch to a rich dairy substance. “Soft as butter” lets an English reader feel the quality of the rain. The first trace of green is an effect of distance too. 遙看 and 近 name two positions from which to look. Seen across a stretch of ground, the sparse shoots make a wash of color. Close up, the separate shoots barely make a field of green at all. 卻 marks the surprising reversal.
Lines 3–4 — The best moment
好處 here is the loveliest point in spring, which is why the translation says “finest moment.” 絕勝 makes the comparison emphatic. A full city of willows would seem to offer more to see, yet the poet prefers a color that almost disappears. The emphatic judgment comes from the delicate observation in line two. Think of what would be lost if the same shoots were described simply as green.
Form and tone
This is the complete first of two seven-character quatrains. The near/far reversal in line two prepares the value judgment of the last couplet: less developed growth can give greater pleasure. The declarative 最是 and 絕勝 make an otherwise delicate observation emphatic.
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
The title addresses Zhang Ji through his official position and family ranking, “Eighteen,” not his age. The poem belongs to an exchange between writers with government duties. Read its companion poem to hear the invitation and teasing that surround the landscape observation.
Continue with Han Yu and the nature reading path. Compare Early Spring, Presented to Zhang Eighteen, II and Autumn Poem, I using the reading connections below.
Sources
昌黎先生集/卷十 — 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
Han Yu. “Early Spring, Presented to Zhang Eighteen, I” (早春呈水部張十八員外二首·其一). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/early-spring-for-zhang
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.