Keeping a Guest in the Mountains
山行留客
Shān xíng liú kè
Zhang Xu answers a guest’s fear of rain with a playful reason to remain in the spring mountains.
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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
- 山 shān mountain
- 光 guāng light
- 物 wù things
- 態 tài forms
- 弄 nòng play with
- 春 chūn spring
- 輝 huī radiance
Word meanings — Line 2
- 莫 mò do not
- 為 wèi because
- 輕 qīng slight
- 陰 yīn cloud
- 便 biàn then
- 擬 nǐ plan
- 歸 guī return
Word meanings — Line 3
- 縱 zòng even
- 使 shǐ if
- 晴 qíng clear
- 明 míng bright
- 無 wú no
- 雨 yǔ rain
- 色 sè sign
Word meanings — Line 4
- 入 rù enter
- 雲 yún cloud
- 深 shēn deep
- 處 chù places
- 亦 yì also
- 沾 zhān wet
- 衣 yī clothes
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
山光物態弄春輝，
莫為輕陰便擬歸。
縱使晴明無雨色，
入雲深處亦沾衣。
Translation
Mountain light and living shapes play in spring's glow.
Do not plan to leave at the first thin cloud.
Even with clear skies and no sign of rain,
deep in the clouds your clothes would still grow wet.
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?
山光物態弄春輝，
Pronunciation hint
tài
Reveal meaning and translation
態 — forms
Mountain light and living shapes play in spring's glow.
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
縱使晴明無雨色，
Pronunciation hint
míng
Reveal meaning and translation
明 — bright
Even with clear skies and no sign of rain,
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
入雲深處亦沾衣。
Pronunciation hint
chù
Reveal meaning and translation
處 — places
deep in the clouds your clothes would still grow wet.
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 · Reasons to stay
物態 names the forms and appearances of the things around the guest. 弄 gives their play in the spring light a liveliness the English keeps in its verb “play.” 輕陰 brings a slight clouding, and 便擬歸 describes how quickly it makes the guest plan to leave. 莫為 asks the guest to reconsider that reason in the setting the first line has supplied.
Lines 3–4 · What clear weather can still feel like
縱使 introduces a concession. Even if the sky is clear (晴明) and shows no sign of rain (無雨色), someone who goes deep into cloud can find their clothes damp. 入雲深處 describes a different place from the sky seen at a distance. 亦 carries “still” across the change of viewpoint. Once wetness is understood as part of being in the mountains, a slight cloud is a weaker reason to cut the visit short. The persuasion depends on what the guest might feel by going farther in.
Form and tone
The seven-character jueju pairs a prohibition, 莫, with a concession, 縱使. 輝, 歸, and 衣 rhyme, connecting spring light, the threatened return, and the final wet clothing. Pinyin uses modern Mandarin; no historical tone table is asserted.
Historical context
Zhang Xu makes nature part of a social exchange. Compare A Question for Liu Nineteen, where weather helps invite a friend indoors, and Sending Yuan Er to Anxi, where a cup delays departure. Here the invitation is to stay within the mountain weather itself.
Sources
《全唐詩》, juan 117, checked in the Wikisource transcription. The main reading is followed; variant graphs 爲、却 are normalized to 為、卻. 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
Zhang Xu. “Keeping a Guest in the Mountains” (山行留客). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/keeping-a-guest-in-the-mountains
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.