Listening to the Qin
聽彈琴
Tīng tán qín
An old melody sounds like wind in pines, but few listeners value it. Read how pleasure in the qin becomes a reflection on taste and recognition.
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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
- 泠 líng clear ringing
- 泠 líng clear ringing
- 七 qī seven
- 絲 sī strings
- 上 shàng on
Word meanings — Line 2
- 靜 jìng quietly
- 聽 tīng listen
- 松 sōng pine
- 風 fēng wind
- 寒 hán cold
Word meanings — Line 3
- 古 gǔ ancient
- 調 diào tune
- 雖 suī although
- 自 zì myself
- 愛 ài love
Word meanings — Line 4
- 今 jīn present
- 人 rén people
- 多 duō mostly
- 不 bù not
- 彈 tán play
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
泠泠七絲上，
靜聽松風寒。
古調雖自愛，
今人多不彈。
Translation
Clear, clear notes from the seven strings;
listening quietly, I feel the chill of wind in pines.
Though I myself love the old tune,
people now mostly leave it unplayed.
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?
泠泠七絲上，
Pronunciation hint
qī
Reveal meaning and translation
七 — seven
Clear, clear notes from the seven strings;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
古調雖自愛，
Pronunciation hint
suī
Reveal meaning and translation
雖 — although
Though I myself love the old tune,
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
今人多不彈。
Pronunciation hint
duō
Reveal meaning and translation
多 — mostly
people now mostly leave it unplayed.
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 sound that feels cold
泠泠 repeats the clear, ringing quality of the notes. 七絲 names the seven strings of the qin by their material. This page keeps 絲 from the selected text, with 七弦 as an alternative reading for the same seven strings. 靜聽 places the listener in quiet attention. 松風 makes wind in the pines audible through music, and 寒 gives that imagined sound a felt temperature. The English brings this perception into the listener’s body with “I feel.”
Lines 3–4 — What the tune means to one listener
雖 makes the two last lines a concession and its answer. 自愛 is the speaker’s own affection for the 古調, an old tune. 今人 extends the view to the habits of people now. 多 makes their neglect a tendency. After two lines devoted to what attentive listening can hear, the last line asks us to notice how easily that sound can fall out of practice.
Form and tone
Four five-character lines divide between an act of listening and a reflection on taste. 古 and 今 make the temporal contrast explicit. The final negative does not cancel the first pair’s living performance: an old tune is being valued here even while its neglect is lamented.
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
The poem speaks about music and can also invite comparison with the reception of poetry. That analogy is a reading, not a reason to erase the actual instrument. This page retains 七絲, while explaining the alternative 七弦, rather than presenting the two as different numbers of strings.
Continue with Liu Changqing and the music reading path. Compare After Writing a Poem and On an Autumn Night, Sent to Qiu using the reading connections below.
Sources
聽彈琴 — 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
Liu Changqing. “Listening to the Qin” (聽彈琴). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/listening-to-the-qin
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.