Flower, Yet Not a Flower
花非花
Huā fēi huā
A fleeting presence is compared to flowers, mist, dreams, and clouds without being named. Read the original Chinese with pinyin, word meanings, an original English translation, and notes.
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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
- 花 huā flower
- 非 fēi not
- 花 huā flower
Word meanings — Line 2
- 霧 wù mist
- 非 fēi not
- 霧 wù mist
Word meanings — Line 3
- 夜半 yè bàn midnight
- 來 lái come
Word meanings — Line 4
- 天明 tiān míng daybreak
- 去 qù go
Word meanings — Line 5
- 來 lái come
- 如 rú like
- 春夢 chūn mèng spring dream
- 幾多時 jǐ duō shí how much time
Word meanings — Line 6
- 去 qù go
- 似 sì like
- 朝雲 zhāo yún morning cloud
- 無 wú no
- 覓處 mì chù place to seek
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
花非花，
霧非霧，
夜半來，
天明去。
來如春夢幾多時，
去似朝雲無覓處。
Translation
A flower, yet not a flower;
mist, yet not mist.
It comes at midnight,
and goes when daylight comes.
Coming like a spring dream—how long can it stay?
Going like morning cloud, with nowhere to seek it.
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?
花非花，
Pronunciation hint
fēi
Reveal meaning and translation
非 — not
A flower, yet not a flower;
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
天明去。
Pronunciation hint
tiān míng
Reveal meaning and translation
天明 — daybreak
and goes when daylight comes.
-
Line 6 · What does the marked word mean?
去似朝雲無覓處。
Pronunciation hint
zhāo yún
Reveal meaning and translation
朝雲 — morning cloud
Going like morning cloud, with nowhere to seek it.
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: a likeness with its name withheld
Each phrase says a noun and immediately repeats it after 非. The first 花 gives us the image of a flower and the second withdraws the identification. The English “yet” lets the reader hear the reversal. No noun names what comes and goes, so the later “it” leaves the subject as open as the Chinese does.
Lines 3–4: a clear time for an unclear presence
夜半 and 天明 give the appearance two firm boundaries. The direct verbs 來 and 去 are enough to establish a visit without saying what traveled, whom it visited, or how.
Lines 5–6: the difference between when and where
The longer lines repeat 來 and 去 and give each a simile. 春夢 suggests how short the arrival feels. 朝雲 suggests how little there is left to follow. 幾多時 makes the first a question of duration in this reading. The variant 不多時 states shortness outright. 無覓處 closes on a different limit: there is nowhere to look.
Form and tone
Four three-character phrases are followed by two seven-character lines. That uneven shape makes this unlike a regulated quatrain. Later lyric traditions use the opening as a tune name, but this page shelves the text with gushi and does not assume a surviving melody. The long ending expands the comparisons after the short, repeated denials.
See the gushi guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin; no historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The poem’s refusal to identify its subject is part of its work. A reading about lost intimacy or memory is possible, but the text does not supply a named person or dated occasion. Read the shifts in certainty: time of arrival is specific, identity is withheld, duration is questioned, and departure leaves no recoverable location.
Read more by Bai Juyi, or follow the memory shelf. The English translation, gloss, and notes are original to PoemWell.
Sources
花非花, public transcription. We print 幾多時 as in this transcription, rather than the also-circulating 不多時. The short phrases are displayed as separate reading lines. Punctuation and reading-line divisions are editorial.
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
Bai Juyi. “Flower, Yet Not a Flower” (花非花). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/flower-not-flower
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.