Laolao Pavilion
勞勞亭
Láoláo tíng
Spring itself seems reluctant to supply willow branches for another farewell. 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.
Word meanings — Line 1
- 天下 tiān xià under heaven
- 傷心 shāng xīn wound the heart
- 處 chù place
Word meanings — Line 2
- 勞勞 láo láo Laolao
- 送客 sòng kè see a traveler off
- 亭 tíng pavilion
Word meanings — Line 3
- 春風 chūn fēng spring wind
- 知 zhī know
- 別苦 bié kǔ bitterness of parting
Word meanings — Line 4
- 不 bù not
- 遣 qiǎn allow
- 柳條 liǔ tiáo willow branches
- 青 qīng become green
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
天下傷心處，
勞勞送客亭。
春風知別苦，
不遣柳條青。
Translation
Of all the places under heaven that wound the heart,
there is Laolao, the pavilion for seeing travelers off.
The spring wind knows how bitter parting is;
it will not let the willow branches turn green.
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?
天下傷心處，
Pronunciation hint
tiān xià
Reveal meaning and translation
天下 — under heaven
Of all the places under heaven that wound the heart,
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
春風知別苦，
Pronunciation hint
chūn fēng
Reveal meaning and translation
春風 — spring wind
The spring wind knows how bitter parting is;
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
不遣柳條青。
Pronunciation hint
liǔ tiáo
Reveal meaning and translation
柳條 — willow branches
it will not let the willow branches turn green.
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 →Self-check at your own pace. No score or progress is saved. Open only the answers you want included when printing.
Line-by-line notes
Lines 1–2 — A place made by repeated farewells
天下 opens as broadly as possible. 傷心處 prepares a place where sorrow happens, and the second line gives it a specific name, 勞勞. 送客 describes what the pavilion is used for. The English names it as a place for seeing travelers off, leaving the particular traveler unnamed. The first line can apply to countless departures because the second gives them one place to gather.
Lines 3–4 — What the wind refuses to do
知 lets the wind understand 別苦. Then 不遣 gives it power to keep the willow branches from turning green. The imagined reason depends on the association of willow branches with farewell gifts. 春風 would usually be expected to bring on new growth. Here it withholds the green branches that make parting recognizable. The consolation, if there is one, takes the form of something the wind chooses to leave undone.
Form and tone
This five-character quatrain divides into a place and an explanation. The second pair invents an intention behind the scene. 亭 and 青 rhyme in the even lines; the brevity lets the surprising refusal close the whole poem.
See the quatrain guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
A farewell pavilion becomes a place where different departures accumulate. No named traveler or exact occasion is supplied. The poem’s conceit depends on the reader recognizing that a spring branch can be part of a human parting ritual.
Continue with Li Bai or the farewell shelf.
Sources
Chinese text compared with 勞勞亭, 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. “Laolao Pavilion” (勞勞亭). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/laolao-pavilion
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.