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Tang Dynasty Jueju Du Fu

Meeting Li Guinian in Jiangnan

江南逢李龜年

Jiāngnán féng Lǐ Guīnián

A musician met again among falling blossoms brings earlier halls and audiences back into view. Read the Chinese, pinyin, word meanings, and original English translation.

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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.

01

岐王宅裏尋常見，

qí wáng zhái lǐ xún cháng jiàn

In Prince Qi's residence, I often saw you;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 岐王 qí wáng Prince Qi
  2. 宅裏 zhái lǐ in the residence
  3. 尋常 xún cháng often
  4. 見 jiàn see
02

崔九堂前幾度聞。

cuī jiǔ táng qián jǐ dù wén

before Cui Nine's hall, how many times I heard you.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 崔九 cuī jiǔ Cui Nine
  2. 堂前 táng qián before the hall
  3. 幾度 jǐ dù how many times
  4. 聞 wén hear
03

正是江南好風景，

zhèng shì jiāng nán hǎo fēng jǐng

Now Jiangnan is at its finest,

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 正是 zhèng shì just now is
  2. 江南 jiāng nán Jiangnan
  3. 好風景 hǎo fēng jǐng fine scenery
04

落花時節又逢君。

luò huā shí jié yòu féng jūn

and in the season of falling blossoms I meet you again.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 落花 luò huā falling blossoms
  2. 時節 shí jié season
  3. 又 yòu again
  4. 逢君 féng jūn meet you

English translation by PoemWell.

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Original

岐王宅裏尋常見，

崔九堂前幾度聞。

正是江南好風景，

落花時節又逢君。

Translation

In Prince Qi's residence, I often saw you;

before Cui Nine's hall, how many times I heard you.

Now Jiangnan is at its finest,

and in the season of falling blossoms I meet you again.

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.

  1. Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?

    岐王宅裏尋常見，

    Pronunciation hint

    qí wáng

    Reveal meaning and translation

    岐王 — Prince Qi

    In Prince Qi's residence, I often saw you;

  2. Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?

    正是江南好風景，

    Pronunciation hint

    zhèng shì

    Reveal meaning and translation

    正是 — just now is

    Now Jiangnan is at its finest,

  3. Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?

    落花時節又逢君。

    Pronunciation hint

    luò huā

    Reveal meaning and translation

    落花 — falling blossoms

    and in the season of falling blossoms I meet you again.

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 →

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Line-by-line notes

Lines 1–2: remembered places, remembered sounds

The title identifies the addressee as the musician Li Guinian. The first line says 見, seeing the person in Prince Qi’s residence. The second says 聞, hearing him before Cui Nine’s hall. 崔九 uses a family name and a rank number. 尋常 and 幾度 let the speaker recall repeated meetings without dating them.

Lines 3–4: a meeting with a different setting

正是 draws attention to what is happening now. The named residences give way to the region of Jiangnan and a season of falling blossoms. 又 in 又逢君 recalls the first two lines: the meeting recurs even though its places have changed. The poem says 好風景 and 落花 in the same breath. The beauty of the season can coexist with the sense of elapsed time without reducing the flowers to a fixed allegory.

Form and tone

Two seven-character lines look back; two return to the present. The first pair balances two houses and two kinds of acquaintance. 聞 and 君 give the even-line rhyme, bringing the remembered hearing to the person met again.

See the quatrain guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.

Historical context

The remembered elite houses belong to an earlier social world. The poem’s late reunion need not recount all the intervening upheaval to register how much has changed. We print standard 幾 where the linked witness uses 㡬.

Continue with Du Fu or the time and memory shelf.

Sources

Chinese text compared with 江南逢李龜年, 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

Du Fu. “Meeting Li Guinian in Jiangnan” (江南逢李龜年). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/meeting-li-guinian-in-jiangnan

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