Leyou Plain
樂遊原
Lè yóu yuán
An evening drive brings the speaker to an open plain and a setting sun. Explore the tension between the scene's beauty and the approach of night.
Read the poem
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
- 向 xiàng toward
- 晚 wǎn evening
- 意 yì mind
- 不 bú not
- 適 shì at ease
Word meanings — Line 2
- 驅 qū drive
- 車 chē carriage
- 登 dēng ascend
- 古 gǔ ancient
- 原 yuán plateau
Word meanings — Line 3
- 夕 xī evening
- 陽 yáng sun
- 無 wú without
- 限 xiàn limit
- 好 hǎo beautiful
Word meanings — Line 4
- 只 zhǐ only
- 是 shì is
- 近 jìn near
- 黃 huáng yellow
- 昏 hūn dusk
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
向晚意不適，
驅車登古原。
夕陽無限好，
只是近黃昏。
Translation
Toward evening, my mind is uneasy;
I drive my carriage onto the ancient plateau.
The setting sun is beautiful beyond measure—
only, dusk is drawing near.
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?
向晚意不適，
Pronunciation hint
yì
Reveal meaning and translation
意 — mind
Toward evening, my mind is uneasy;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
夕陽無限好，
Pronunciation hint
wú
Reveal meaning and translation
無 — without
The setting sun is beautiful beyond measure—
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
只是近黃昏。
Pronunciation hint
jìn
Reveal meaning and translation
近 — near
only, dusk is drawing near.
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 — Going up to see
向晚 places the outing as the day turns toward evening. 意不適 gives a mood, unease, without naming its cause. 驅車 and 登 are concrete actions that follow from that mood. The high ground gives the speaker a different view before it gives him anything to say.
Lines 3–4 — Beauty at the edge of night
無限好 puts no limit on the quality of the sight. 近黃昏 then gives it a limit in time. The translation hears 只是 as a qualification, which is why the dash suspends “beautiful beyond measure” before “only.” Another reading puts less weight on regret and sees the nearness of dusk as part of what makes the light beautiful. On either reading, the sunset comes as something seen after a restless beginning. The poem leaves the specific cause of the unease outside the frame.
Form and tone
This five-character jueju has a clear movement from mood to action to sight to reflection. Each line is compact enough to sound self-contained, yet the last pair requires reading together. The pause before 只是 determines how strongly the final qualification is felt.
See jueju for the larger formal pattern. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; a historical level/oblique grid is not inferred from those modern tones.
Historical context
Leyou Plain was an elevated place in the Chang’an area. The site gives the speaker a view, while 古 adds the presence of an older landscape. The poem does not identify the public event or personal disappointment that led to the outing.
Continue with Li Shangyin and the nature reading path. Compare A Mountain Walk and Autumn Poem, I using the reading connections below.
Sources
樂遊原 (向晚意不適) — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. The displayed traditional text follows this reading. Punctuation and line breaks are editorial. Translation, glosses, 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 Shangyin. “Leyou Plain” (樂遊原). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/leyou-plain
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.