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Tang Dynasty Jueju Gao Shi

Living in Retirement

閒居

Xián Jū

Willow green and spring wind unsettle Gao Shi's solitary life, ending in a mischievous comparison between one cup and a library.

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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.

01

柳色驚心事，

liǔ sè jīng xīn shì

Willow green jolts the cares within me;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 柳 liǔ willow
  2. 色 sè color
  3. 驚 jīng startle
  4. 心 xīn heart
  5. 事 shì affairs
02

春風厭索居。

chūn fēng yàn suǒ jū

in the spring wind, I tire of living alone.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 春 chūn spring
  2. 風 fēng wind
  3. 厭 yàn weary of
  4. 索居 suǒ jū live in solitude
03

方知一杯酒，

fāng zhī yì bēi jiǔ

Only now do I know that a cup of wine

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 方 fāng only now
  2. 知 zhī know
  3. 一 yì one
  4. 杯 bēi cup
  5. 酒 jiǔ wine
04

猶勝百家書。

yóu shèng bǎi jiā shū

can still outdo the books of a hundred schools.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 猶 yóu still
  2. 勝 shèng surpasses
  3. 百 bǎi hundred
  4. 家 jiā schools
  5. 書 shū books

English translation by PoemWell.

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Original

柳色驚心事，

春風厭索居。

方知一杯酒，

猶勝百家書。

Translation

Willow green jolts the cares within me;

in the spring wind, I tire of living alone.

Only now do I know that a cup of wine

can still outdo the books of a hundred schools.

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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.

  1. Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?

    柳色驚心事，

    Pronunciation hint

    jīng

    Reveal meaning and translation

    驚 — startle

    Willow green jolts the cares within me;

  2. Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?

    方知一杯酒，

    Pronunciation hint

    yì

    Reveal meaning and translation

    一 — one

    Only now do I know that a cup of wine

  3. Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?

    猶勝百家書。

    Pronunciation hint

    bǎi

    Reveal meaning and translation

    百 — hundred

    can still outdo the books of a hundred schools.

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Line-by-line notes

Lines 1–2: why spring can disturb someone

柳色 is the color of the willows. 驚 lets it jolt an inward concern, 心事, into awareness. 索居 means living apart from companions. The Chinese puts 春風 next to 厭 without spelling out a subject. The translation reads the wind as the setting and the speaker as the one who is tired of solitude.

Lines 3–4: the discovery the mood allows

方知 gives the statement a time: only now does the speaker recognize what 一杯酒 can do. 猶勝 pits that one cup against 百家書, the books of many schools or authors. The numbers give the cup a comic disadvantage in size and an advantage in this moment. What seems to help one lonely spring day becomes a boldly phrased comparison.

Form and tone

The five-character quatrain moves from two spring impressions into a compact comparison. Its small number, 一, gains force against 百. The English preserves the sentence across the last two lines. Pinyin is modern; historical tone categories have not been supplied.

Historical context

The title 閒居 promises leisure, but Gao Shi's speaker finds that leisure restless. The poem belongs with wine as literary companionship and release. Its joke should be read as a particular voice's response to spring loneliness, rather than practical advice to abandon learning.

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. “Living in Retirement” (閒居). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/gao-shi-living-in-retirement

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