Song of the Moon over Mount Emei
峨眉山月歌
Éméi shān yuè gē
Moonlight and place-names accompany a journey downstream from the Emei region. Read the Chinese, pinyin, word meanings, and original English translation.
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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
- 峨眉山 é méi shān Mount Emei
- 月 yuè moon
- 半輪 bàn lún half a disk
- 秋 qiū autumn
Word meanings — Line 2
- 影 yǐng reflection
- 入 rù enter
- 平羌江 píng qiāng jiāng Pingqiang River
- 水流 shuǐ liú water flows
Word meanings — Line 3
- 夜 yè at night
- 發 fā depart
- 清溪 qīng xī Qingxi
- 向 xiàng toward
- 三峽 sān xiá Three Gorges
Word meanings — Line 4
- 思君 sī jūn think of you
- 不見 bú jiàn do not see
- 下 xià go downstream
- 渝州 yú zhōu Yuzhou
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
峨眉山月半輪秋，
影入平羌江水流。
夜發清溪向三峽，
思君不見下渝州。
Translation
Over Mount Emei, an autumn moon is half a disk;
its image enters the Pingqiang River's flowing water.
At night I leave Qingxi, heading for the Three Gorges;
thinking of you, yet unable to see you, I go down toward Yuzhou.
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.
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Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?
峨眉山月半輪秋，
Pronunciation hint
é méi shān
Reveal meaning and translation
峨眉山 — Mount Emei
Over Mount Emei, an autumn moon is half a disk;
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Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
夜發清溪向三峽，
Pronunciation hint
qīng xī
Reveal meaning and translation
清溪 — Qingxi
At night I leave Qingxi, heading for the Three Gorges;
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Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
思君不見下渝州。
Pronunciation hint
sī jūn
Reveal meaning and translation
思君 — think of you
thinking of you, yet unable to see you, I go down toward Yuzhou.
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 moon enters the route
半輪 is a partial disk, literally half a wheel. The English puts “autumn” with the moon to make the compressed time and image readable. The second line lowers the gaze from the moon over Emei to its 影, its reflected image in the Pingqiang River. 水流 gives that reflection moving water to travel with.
Lines 3–4 — The thought that cannot arrive
發 starts the traveler from Qingxi, 向 gives a direction toward the Three Gorges, and 下 continues downstream to Yuzhou. Against those decisive verbs, 思君不見 introduces a relation that cannot be completed by travel. 君 remains “you” in the English. It can be heard as someone missed on the journey, with the vanished or unavailable moon still in the reader's mind. The final line lets motion and the frustration of looking happen at once.
Form and tone
The title calls this a 歌, a song, while the text consists of four seven-character lines. 秋, 流, and 州 carry the rhyme. Several proper names take much of the available space, turning the quatrain into a compact itinerary.
See the quatrain guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The sequence joins Emei and the Pingqiang River to Qingxi, the Three Gorges, and Yuzhou. It carries a traveler outward while the closing verb of thought reaches toward an absent companion. The geography should not erase that unresolved address.
Continue with Li Bai or the moon shelf.
Sources
Chinese text compared with 峨眉山月歌, 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
Li Bai. “Song of the Moon over Mount Emei” (峨眉山月歌). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/mount-emei-moon-song
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.