Passing a Mountain Village at Dusk
暮過山村
Mù guò shān cūn
Bird cries and fading light unsettle a traveler near a remote village. Follow the turn toward hearth smoke and the reassurance of approaching homes.
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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
- 數 shù several
- 里 lǐ li
- 聞 wén hear
- 寒 hán cold
- 水 shuǐ water
Word meanings — Line 2
- 山 shān mountain
- 家 jiā homes
- 少 shǎo few
- 四 sì four sides
- 鄰 lín neighbors
Word meanings — Line 3
- 怪 guài strange
- 禽 qín birds
- 啼 tí cry
- 曠 kuàng open
- 野 yě wilds
Word meanings — Line 4
- 落 luò setting
- 日 rì sun
- 恐 kǒng frightens
- 行 xíng traveling
- 人 rén person
Word meanings — Line 5
- 初 chū new
- 月 yuè moon
- 未 wèi not
- 終 zhōng last through
- 夕 xī evening
Word meanings — Line 6
- 邊 biān frontier
- 烽 fēng beacon fires
- 不 bú not
- 過 guò pass beyond
- 秦 qín Qin
Word meanings — Line 7
- 蕭 xiāo desolate
- 條 tiáo bare
- 桑 sāng mulberry
- 柘 zhè silkworm thorn
- 外 wài beyond
Word meanings — Line 8
- 煙 yān smoke
- 火 huǒ fires
- 漸 jiàn gradually
- 相 xiāng with one another
- 親 qīn become close
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
數里聞寒水，
山家少四鄰。
怪禽啼曠野，
落日恐行人。
初月未終夕，
邊烽不過秦。
蕭條桑柘外，
煙火漸相親。
Translation
For several li I hear cold running water;
the mountain houses have few neighbors.
Strange birds cry across the open wilds;
the setting sun makes the traveler afraid.
The new moon will not last through the evening;
the frontier beacons do not reach beyond Qin.
Beyond the sparse mulberries and thorn trees,
hearth smoke and fire gradually feel like kin.
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?
數里聞寒水，
Pronunciation hint
wén
Reveal meaning and translation
聞 — hear
For several li I hear cold running water;
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
初月未終夕，
Pronunciation hint
wèi
Reveal meaning and translation
未 — not
The new moon will not last through the evening;
-
Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
煙火漸相親。
Pronunciation hint
jiàn
Reveal meaning and translation
漸 — gradually
hearth smoke and fire gradually feel like kin.
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 — Hearing a place before seeing it
數里 measures a stretch of travel in li. The cold stream is present as something heard across that distance. 山家少四鄰 gives the few houses correspondingly few neighbors. The English keeps the listening “I” in the first line and lets the second look outward at the settlement.
Lines 3–4 — The hour makes the road threatening
怪禽 gives us cries that the traveler finds strange. 曠野 leaves room for them to carry. 恐 can make the traveler the person affected by the sunset, as our English does. The last light makes the sound more unsettling.
Lines 5–6 — Lights that cannot reach far
初月 is the young crescent. 未終夕 sets a limit on how long it can light the evening. The beacons also have a limit, expressed by 不過秦. The two lines take away distant sources of reassurance one after the other.
Lines 7–8 — A fire close enough to matter
桑柘 marks the approach through the sparse trees. 煙火 means the signs of hearths and inhabited houses. 相親 gives those signs an almost personal welcome. The word 漸 lets that feeling grow as the traveler approaches. The beacons mark a remote territory, while the smoke suggests somebody close by.
Form and tone
This eight-line, five-character lüshi proceeds in four stages: remote settlement, fear at dusk, uncertain lights, and approaching habitation. The paired sunset and bird cries sharpen the middle scene. The final 漸, “gradually,” avoids a sudden rescue and lets reassurance accumulate.
See lüshi 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 poem names Qin as part of its wider geography but leaves the village unnamed. Its traveler experiences the mountains through changing light and sound. This is not the same solitude as a hermit’s chosen retreat; the closing warmth depends on wanting other people nearby.
Continue with Jia Dao and the nature reading path. Compare Shelter in Snow at Furong Mountain and Lodging at a Mountain Temple using the reading connections below.
Sources
全唐詩/卷573 — 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
Jia Dao. “Passing a Mountain Village at Dusk” (暮過山村). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/evening-through-a-mountain-village
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.