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Tang Dynasty Ci Wen Tingyun

Nan Ge Zi: A Golden Parrot in Her Hand

南歌子·手裏金鸚鵡

Nán gē zǐ · shǒu lǐ jīn yīng wǔ

Bird ornaments become a playful wish for companionship. Follow this short lyric from hands and clothing to an imagined pair of mandarin ducks.

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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.

01

手裏金鸚鵡，

shǒu lǐ jīn yīng wǔ

A golden parrot in her hand,

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 手 shǒu hand
  2. 裏 lǐ in
  3. 金 jīn gold
  4. 鸚 yīng parrot
  5. 鵡 wǔ parrot
02

胸前繡鳳凰，

xiōng qián xiù fèng huáng

an embroidered phoenix at her breast.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 胸 xiōng chest
  2. 前 qián before
  3. 繡 xiù embroidered
  4. 鳳 fèng phoenix
  5. 凰 huáng phoenix
03

偷眼暗形相，

tōu yǎn àn xíng xiàng

With a stolen glance, she secretly studies him:

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 偷 tōu furtive
  2. 眼 yǎn glance
  3. 暗 àn secretly
  4. 形 xíng appearance
  5. 相 xiàng examine
04

不如從嫁與，

bù rú cóng jià yǔ

better simply to marry him

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 不 bù not
  2. 如 rú as good as
  3. 從 cóng simply
  4. 嫁 jià marry
  5. 與 yǔ to
05

作鴛鴦。

zuò yuān yāng

and be a pair of mandarin ducks.

Word meanings — Line 5
  1. 作 zuò become
  2. 鴛 yuān mandarin drake
  3. 鴦 yāng mandarin duck

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

手裏金鸚鵡，

胸前繡鳳凰，

偷眼暗形相，

不如從嫁與，

作鴛鴦。

Translation

A golden parrot in her hand,

an embroidered phoenix at her breast.

With a stolen glance, she secretly studies him:

better simply to marry him

and be a pair of mandarin ducks.

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?

    手裏金鸚鵡，

    Pronunciation hint

    jīn

    Reveal meaning and translation

    金 — gold

    A golden parrot in her hand,

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

    偷眼暗形相，

    Pronunciation hint

    àn

    Reveal meaning and translation

    暗 — secretly

    With a stolen glance, she secretly studies him:

  3. Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?

    作鴛鴦。

    Pronunciation hint

    yuān

    Reveal meaning and translation

    鴛 — mandarin drake

    and be a pair of mandarin ducks.

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

Phrases 1–2 · Birds in things she holds and wears

手裏 and 胸前 place two bird images close to the woman. 金鸚鵡 is conventionally read as a golden vessel in the shape of a parrot. The English keeps “golden parrot,” allowing the compact image to arrive before the note supplies the likely object. 繡 identifies the phoenix as embroidery.

Phrase 3 · An object of attention

偷眼 and 暗 keep the glance private. 形相, xíng xiàng, is to examine another's appearance. The Chinese leaves the person looked at unexpressed, and the English “him” follows the desire disclosed in the next phrase. The Ministry of Education dictionary entry cites this lyric for the reading.

Phrases 4–5 · Picturing the relationship

不如 introduces the better possibility as she sees it. 從 has the force of simply going ahead in this idiom. The phrase about marrying carries forward into 作, “become,” and 鴛鴦 gives her imagined union a paired image. The poem began with birds as ornaments on a person. It ends with a pair of birds as the shape that person gives to a wish.

Form and tone

This short ci has phrase lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, and 3. The three-character ending is essential: expanding it into a five-character line would change the transmitted text. Its brevity makes the imagined union arrive as a quick final decision after the secret glance.

See ci 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 lyric is preserved in the Huajian tradition under Wen Tingyun’s name. It stages desire through a dramatic female figure; the scene should not be used to identify a real model. For the pronunciation of 形相, see the Ministry of Education dictionary.

Continue with Wen Tingyun and the love reading path. Compare Because There Is Such Beauty and Bamboo-Branch Song, I using the reading connections below.

Sources

南歌子 (手裏金鸚鵡) — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. The graph 綉 is normalized to 繡. The modern reading xíng xiàng for 形相 follows the Ministry of Education dictionary entry, which cites this lyric. 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

Wen Tingyun. “Nan Ge Zi: A Golden Parrot in Her Hand” (南歌子·手裏金鸚鵡). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/nan-ge-zi-golden-parrot

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.