Joking with the Huamen Wine Seller
戲問花門酒家翁
Xì wèn Huāmén jiǔjiā wēng
Cen Shen asks an old wine seller whether coin-shaped elm seeds could pay for a drink in this playful spring quatrain.
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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.
Word meanings — Line 1
- 老 lǎo old
- 人 rén man
- 七 qī seven
- 十 shí ten
- 仍 réng still
- 沽 gū sells
- 酒 jiǔ wine
Word meanings — Line 2
- 千 qiān thousand
- 壺 hú jugs
- 百 bǎi hundred
- 甕 wèng jars
- 花 huā Hua
- 門 mén men
- 口 kǒu entrance
Word meanings — Line 3
- 道 dào road
- 傍 páng beside
- 榆莢 yú jiá round winged elm fruits
- 仍 réng still
- 似 sì like
- 錢 qián coins
Word meanings — Line 4
- 摘 zhāi pick
- 來 lái bring
- 沽 gū buy
- 酒 jiǔ wine
- 君 jūn you
- 肯 kěn agree
- 否 fǒu or not
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
老人七十仍沽酒，
千壺百甕花門口。
道傍榆莢仍似錢，
摘來沽酒君肯否。
Translation
Seventy years old, you are still selling wine,
a thousand jugs and a hundred jars at Huamen.
The round elm fruits beside the road look just like coins—
if I pick them to buy wine, will you accept them?
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?
老人七十仍沽酒，
Pronunciation hint
shí
Reveal meaning and translation
十 — ten
Seventy years old, you are still selling wine,
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
道傍榆莢仍似錢，
Pronunciation hint
yú jiá
Reveal meaning and translation
榆莢 — round winged elm fruits
The round elm fruits beside the road look just like coins—
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
摘來沽酒君肯否。
Pronunciation hint
jiǔ
Reveal meaning and translation
酒 — wine
if I pick them to buy wine, will you accept them?
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 is being sold
七十 makes the seller’s age explicit. 仍 lets the speaker notice that he is still selling. 千壺百甕 piles up vessels in front of the reader. The two numbers convey abundance, and 花門口 gives it a place the passing speaker can address.
Lines 3–4: the same verb changes hands
The round 榆莢 resemble cash in shape. 仍 repeats from line 1 and moves the eye from the seller to these would-be coins. In the opening 沽酒 means to sell wine, and in the last line the same phrase means to buy it. The English changes verbs because seller and buyer have swapped roles. 君肯否 leaves the transaction suspended on whether the other person is willing to play along.
Form and tone
This seven-character jueju uses the oblique rhyme 酒, 口, and 否. The repeated 沽 changes social direction between seller and customer. The final question gives the imagined exchange its timing. Modern pinyin is supplied; no historical tone grid is inferred.
Historical context
Cen Shen's wine poem gives the frontier collection a comic social encounter. Compare A Question for Liu Nineteen, another unanswered invitation involving drink, and Visiting an Old Friend's Farm, where the cup belongs to a welcome already accepted. Here the obstacle is playfully financial.
Sources
《全唐詩》, juan 201, Cen Shen; the Wikisource transcription's main reading is followed. 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. “Joking with the Huamen Wine Seller” (戲問花門酒家翁). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/joking-with-the-huamen-wine-seller
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.