Looking at Lake Dongting
望洞庭
Wàng Dòngtíng
Moonlight smooths Lake Dongting into a vast mirror. Read the changing scale as distant landscape becomes a green shell resting on a silver plate.
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
- 湖 hú lake
- 光 guāng light
- 秋 qiū autumn
- 月 yuè moon
- 兩 liǎng both
- 相 xiāng mutually
- 和 hé harmonize
Word meanings — Line 2
- 潭 tán deep water
- 面 miàn surface
- 無 wú no
- 風 fēng wind
- 鏡 jìng mirror
- 未 wèi not yet
- 磨 mó polished
Word meanings — Line 3
- 遙 yáo from afar
- 望 wàng look
- 洞 dòng Dong
- 庭 tíng ting
- 山 shān mountain
- 水 shuǐ water
- 翠 cuì green
Word meanings — Line 4
- 白 bái white
- 銀 yín silver
- 盤 pán dish
- 裏 lǐ inside
- 一 yì one
- 青 qīng green
- 螺 luó snail
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
湖光秋月兩相和，
潭面無風鏡未磨。
遙望洞庭山水翠，
白銀盤裏一青螺。
Translation
Lake light and autumn moonlight blend;
the windless surface is a mirror not yet polished.
From far away, Dongting's mountain and water are green:
one green snail in a dish of silver.
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?
湖光秋月兩相和，
Pronunciation hint
yuè
Reveal meaning and translation
月 — moon
Lake light and autumn moonlight blend;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
遙望洞庭山水翠，
Pronunciation hint
tíng
Reveal meaning and translation
庭 — ting
From far away, Dongting's mountain and water are green:
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
白銀盤裏一青螺。
Pronunciation hint
lǐ
Reveal meaning and translation
裏 — inside
one green snail in a dish of silver.
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 reflective surface
兩相和 puts lake light and autumn moonlight into a relation. The two lights blend in the English, leaving neither as a mere background. 無風 then gives a physical condition for the stillness. 鏡未磨 compares the surface to a mirror before polishing, with a muted reflection. The water can be motionless without shining like a finished mirror.
Lines 3–4 — A landscape reduced to objects
遙望 changes the scale through distance. The selected line ends in 翠, so the English names the green of the mountain and water. The alternative 山水色 leaves the color unspecified there. A silver dish in the fourth line gives the water a containing shape. 一青螺 puts a single compact green form within it, the distant island mountain seen in the likeness of a snail. The dish holds a distinct object where the earlier mirror offered a surface.
Form and tone
This seven-character jueju moves through two comparisons, mirror and dish. The first establishes surface and light; the second brings a mountain into the composition. The explicit 遙望, “look from afar,” explains the visual compression of the ending.
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
Dongting is a lake in the middle Yangtze region. The poem names the lake, while the conventional identification of its island mountain is Junshan. Its particular evening does not need a reconstructed travel itinerary: the four lines supply season, light, distance, and viewpoint.
Continue with Liu Yuxi and the nature reading path. Compare Mooring on the Jiande River and Stone City using the reading connections below.
Sources
望洞庭 — 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 Yuxi. “Looking at Lake Dongting” (望洞庭). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/looking-at-lake-dongting
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.