Mooring on the Qinhuai
泊秦淮
Bó Qínhuái
A night mooring near a wine house brings an old court song across the water. Hear how present pleasure becomes entangled with a fallen dynasty.
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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
- 煙 yān mist
- 籠 lǒng envelops
- 寒 hán cold
- 水 shuǐ water
- 月 yuè moon
- 籠 lǒng envelops
- 沙 shā sand
Word meanings — Line 2
- 夜 yè night
- 泊 bó moor
- 秦 qín Qin
- 淮 huái huai
- 近 jìn near
- 酒 jiǔ wine
- 家 jiā house
Word meanings — Line 3
- 商 shāng professional
- 女 nǚ singer
- 不 bù not
- 知 zhī know
- 亡 wáng fallen
- 國 guó state
- 恨 hèn sorrow
Word meanings — Line 4
- 隔 gé across
- 江 jiāng river
- 猶 yóu still
- 唱 chàng sings
- 後 hòu rear
- 庭 tíng court
- 花 huā flowers
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
煙籠寒水月籠沙，
夜泊秦淮近酒家。
商女不知亡國恨，
隔江猶唱後庭花。
Translation
Mist folds over the cold water, moonlight over the sand.
At night I moor on the Qinhuai near a wine house.
The singing woman does not know a fallen kingdom's grief;
across the river she still sings “Flowers of the Rear Court.”
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?
煙籠寒水月籠沙，
Pronunciation hint
shuǐ
Reveal meaning and translation
水 — water
Mist folds over the cold water, moonlight over the sand.
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
商女不知亡國恨，
Pronunciation hint
zhī
Reveal meaning and translation
知 — know
The singing woman does not know a fallen kingdom's grief;
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
隔江猶唱後庭花。
Pronunciation hint
chàng
Reveal meaning and translation
唱 — sings
across the river she still sings “Flowers of the Rear Court.”
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: how a night mooring comes into view
The first 籠 encloses the cold water in mist, and the second encloses the sand in moonlight. The English uses “folds over” so the same enclosing motion can hold the two surfaces together. 泊 brings the traveler into this view as someone stopping for the night. 近酒家 puts a place of drinking within earshot before we hear anyone sing.
Lines 3–4: an old song heard in the present
商女 is a professional singer here. 後庭花 names a song associated with the last ruler of the Chen dynasty and its later fall. The important time-word is 猶, “still”: a repertoire charged with old grief remains ordinary entertainment across the river. The apparent rebuke can extend from the singer to those who request and enjoy the song. We hear what is sung and have no direct account of what the singer or her listeners know.
Form and tone
The seven-character jueju moves from a balanced visual line to a historical meaning carried by sound. 猶, “still,” is the hinge: it makes the present performance echo an earlier court. The ending names the song instead of adding a separate moral.
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 Qinhuai landscape is associated with the old southern capital. Du Mu’s night scene joins pleasure, recollection, and political loss. The poem is evidence of how the song was remembered, not independent proof that a particular song caused a dynasty to fall.
Continue with Du Mu and the memory reading path. Compare Stone City and Autumn Evening using the reading connections below.
Sources
泊秦淮 — 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
Du Mu. “Mooring on the Qinhuai” (泊秦淮). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/mooring-on-the-qinhuai
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.