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Tang Dynasty Jueju Li Bai

Grievance on the Jade Steps

玉階怨

Yù jiē yuàn

Dew, stockings, and a lowered curtain suggest a wait the speaker never explains. Read the Chinese, pinyin, word meanings, and original English translation.

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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.

01

玉階生白露，

yù jiē shēng bái lù

Pale dew gathers on the jade steps;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 玉階 yù jiē jade steps
  2. 生 shēng form
  3. 白露 bái lù pale dew
02

夜久侵羅襪。

yè jiǔ qīn luó wà

as the night lengthens, it seeps into silk stockings.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 夜久 yè jiǔ the night grows long
  2. 侵 qīn penetrate
  3. 羅襪 luó wà silk-gauze stockings
03

卻下水晶簾，

què xià shuǐ jīng lián

Then the crystal curtain is lowered,

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 卻 què then or instead
  2. 下 xià lower
  3. 水晶簾 shuǐ jīng lián crystal curtain
04

玲瓏望秋月。

líng lóng wàng qiū yuè

and through its clear glitter, someone watches the autumn moon.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 玲瓏 líng lóng clear glittering appearance
  2. 望 wàng gaze at
  3. 秋月 qiū yuè autumn moon

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

玉階生白露，

夜久侵羅襪。

卻下水晶簾，

玲瓏望秋月。

Translation

Pale dew gathers on the jade steps;

as the night lengthens, it seeps into silk stockings.

Then the crystal curtain is lowered,

and through its clear glitter, someone watches the autumn moon.

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.

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

    玉階生白露，

    Pronunciation hint

    yù jiē

    Reveal meaning and translation

    玉階 — jade steps

    Pale dew gathers on the jade steps;

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

    卻下水晶簾，

    Pronunciation hint

    shuǐ jīng lián

    Reveal meaning and translation

    水晶簾 — crystal curtain

    Then the crystal curtain is lowered,

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

    玲瓏望秋月。

    Pronunciation hint

    líng lóng

    Reveal meaning and translation

    玲瓏 — clear glittering appearance

    and through its clear glitter, someone watches the autumn moon.

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 →

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Line-by-line notes

Lines 1–2 — Time felt through clothing

The title supplies 怨, a grievance or sorrow. In the first two lines the only thing shown acting is dew. 生 brings it onto the jade steps, then 侵 lets it enter the fine stockings. “Seeps” makes 侵 a small physical intrusion. 夜久 measures the wait by what the moisture has time to do. A cause for the grievance would take us beyond the scene we have been shown.

Lines 3–4 — A curtain between the watcher and the moon

下 is a verb, lowering the curtain. The English makes that action passive because the Chinese supplies no named subject. 玲瓏 suggests delicate clarity or luminosity. In the English it is the glitter through which the autumn moon is still visible. Lowering the curtain alters the conditions of seeing without ending the act of looking. The last verb 望 leaves someone attending to what is outside.

Form and tone

This five-character quatrain works within an inherited song title. The even endings 襪 and 月 belong to a historical rhyme relationship obscured by modern Mandarin. An apparent retreat indoors does not close the looking outward.

See the quatrain guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.

Historical context

Jade steps, fine stockings, and a crystal curtain evoke an elite interior. They do not identify a particular palace woman or a real incident in Li Bai’s life. The strongest evidence of emotion is the continued attention after a long cold wait.

Continue with Li Bai or the love shelf.

Sources

Chinese text compared with 玉階怨, public transcription on Wikisource. Punctuation is editorial; the English translation 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

Li Bai. “Grievance on the Jade Steps” (玉階怨). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/grievance-on-the-jade-steps

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.