In the Stony Desert
磧中作
Qì zhōng zuò
Two full moons measure Cen Shen’s westward journey, but the desert gives no answer to where he will sleep tonight.
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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
- 走 zǒu urge on
- 馬 mǎ horse
- 西 xī west
- 來 lái come
- 欲 yù almost
- 到 dào reach
- 天 tiān sky
Word meanings — Line 2
- 辭 cí leave
- 家 jiā home
- 見 jiàn see
- 月 yuè moon
- 兩 liǎng two
- 回 huí times
- 圓 yuán round
Word meanings — Line 3
- 今 jīn this
- 夜 yè night
- 不 bù not
- 知 zhī know
- 何 hé what
- 處 chù place
- 宿 sù lodge
Word meanings — Line 4
- 平 píng level
- 沙 shā sand
- 萬 wàn ten thousand
- 里 lǐ li
- 絕 jué without
- 人 rén human
- 煙 yān smoke
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
走馬西來欲到天，
辭家見月兩回圓。
今夜不知何處宿，
平沙萬里絕人煙。
Translation
Riding west, I seem about to reach the sky.
Since leaving home, I have seen the moon grow full twice.
Tonight I do not know where I will sleep:
level sand stretches far without a trace of habitation.
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?
走馬西來欲到天，
Pronunciation hint
lái
Reveal meaning and translation
來 — come
Riding west, I seem about to reach the sky.
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
今夜不知何處宿，
Pronunciation hint
zhī
Reveal meaning and translation
知 — know
Tonight I do not know where I will sleep:
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
平沙萬里絕人煙。
Pronunciation hint
lǐ
Reveal meaning and translation
里 — li
level sand stretches far without a trace of habitation.
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: the sky as distance, the moon as a clock
走馬 sets the speaker on a moving horse. 欲到天 stretches the westward ride toward the sky, and “seem about to reach” keeps that enlargement in the traveler’s perception. 辭家 then makes home the point from which time is counted. 兩回圓 records two full moons seen along the way. We feel the duration through a repeated sight.
Lines 3–4: one night with nowhere to stop
今夜 narrows that long journey to the next place to sleep. 何處宿 is the immediate question, while 平沙萬里 gives the scale of the answer the eye can find. 人煙 is human smoke in its literal image and a sign of habitation in use. The English “trace of habitation” makes clear what is absent when the speaker looks for a place to stop.
Form and tone
Four seven-character lines make a jueju. 天, 圓, and 煙 rhyme. The sequence contracts from the sky's edge to two lunar cycles, then to tonight's shelter. Modern pinyin accompanies the text; a historical tone grid is omitted.
Historical context
Cen Shen lets a frontier journey retain bodily needs despite its immense scale. Compare Meeting a Messenger Bound for the Capital, where an unexpected person interrupts that distance, and Mooring on the Jiande River, where stopping for the night brings the moon near.
Sources
《全唐詩》, juan 201, Cen Shen; checked against the Wikisource transcription and its recorded variants. Punctuation is 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
Cen Shen. “In the Stony Desert” (磧中作). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/in-the-stony-desert
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.