Farewell to Dong Da
別董大二首·其一
Bié Dǒng Dà Èr Shǒu · Qí Yī
Gao Shi’s Farewell to Dong Da, with pinyin, English translation, and notes on ten-li versus thousand-li texts, harsh weather, and the promise of recognition.
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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
- 十 shí ten
- 里 lǐ li
- 黃 huáng yellow
- 雲 yún clouds
- 白 bái bright
- 日 rì sun
- 曛 xūn dim
Word meanings — Line 2
- 北 běi north
- 風 fēng wind
- 吹 chuī blows
- 雁 yàn geese
- 雪 xuě snow
- 紛紛 fēn fēn thickly swirling
Word meanings — Line 3
- 莫 mò do not
- 愁 chóu worry
- 前 qián ahead
- 路 lù road
- 無 wú without
- 知己 zhī jǐ someone who understands one’s worth
Word meanings — Line 4
- 天下 tiān xià all under heaven
- 誰 shéi who
- 人 rén person
- 不 bù not
- 識 shí recognize
- 君 jūn you
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
十里黃雲白日曛，
北風吹雁雪紛紛。
莫愁前路無知己，
天下誰人不識君。
Translation
For ten li, yellow cloud dims the bright sun;
north wind drives the geese, and snow keeps swirling.
Do not fear that no one on your road will understand you:
under all this sky, who has not heard of you?
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?
十里黃雲白日曛，
Pronunciation hint
yún
Reveal meaning and translation
雲 — clouds
For ten li, yellow cloud dims the bright sun;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
莫愁前路無知己，
Pronunciation hint
zhī jǐ
Reveal meaning and translation
知己 — someone who understands one’s worth
Do not fear that no one on your road will understand you:
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
天下誰人不識君。
Pronunciation hint
tiān xià
Reveal meaning and translation
天下 — all under heaven
under all this sky, who has not heard of you?
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: what the traveler will go out into
曛 is the dimmed glow of the sun. 北風 drives geese and 紛紛 gives the snow a swirling movement. Our source reads 十里, ten li, where the widely circulated 千里 enlarges the distance. Both put yellow cloud and dim light over an exposed road. The translation follows the selected 十里.
Lines 3–4: a different way of imagining the road
莫愁 asks the friend not to fear what lies ahead. 知己 means someone who understands one’s character or worth. It gives the imagined meeting more depth than casual recognition. In the last line, 誰人不識君 expects the confident answer that the friend will be recognized. 天下 widens the view in a new way: the first line measured the sky in distance, and the last asks who lives under it. Compare Wang Wei’s farewell cup, where the future west of the pass is pictured through the absence of old friends.
Form and tone
This seven-character quatrain turns from weather to direct address after its second line. The expansive final question gives the farewell its lift. Modern Mandarin pinyin is supplied; no historical level-and-oblique tone grid is asserted.
Historical context
Gao Shi often lets a friend's situation emerge through the conditions of travel. This first poem in a two-poem sequence is complete in itself. Read it alongside Wang Wei's farewell cup: one speaker imagines new recognition ahead, while the other stresses the friends a traveler is leaving behind.
Read this poem alongside the contrasting selections in our friendship and farewell guide.
Sources
Chinese text follows the Sibu Congkan transcription of Gao Changshi ji, juan 8. Variant written forms are normalized to current traditional characters (including 巳 to 己 in 知己, 鴈 to 雁, 郷 to 鄉, 鬂 to 鬢, 羗 to 羌, and 猒 to 厭); wording is retained. Punctuation is editorial. The English translation and 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
Gao Shi. “Farewell to Dong Da” (別董大二首·其一). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/farewell-to-dong-da
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.