At the New Year
新年作
Xīn nián zuò
The new year deepens a displaced speaker's longing for home. Follow the thought that spring returns before he can, and the closing memory of an earlier exile.
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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
- 鄉 xiāng home
- 心 xīn heart
- 新 xīn new
- 歲 suì year
- 切 qiè urgent
Word meanings — Line 2
- 天 tiān sky
- 畔 pàn edge
- 獨 dú alone
- 潸 shān tearful
- 然 rán thus
Word meanings — Line 3
- 老 lǎo old age
- 至 zhì arrives
- 居 jū live
- 人 rén others
- 下 xià below
Word meanings — Line 4
- 春 chūn spring
- 歸 guī returns
- 在 zài before
- 客 kè traveler
- 先 xiān ahead
Word meanings — Line 5
- 嶺 lǐng ridge
- 猨 yuán apes
- 同 tóng share
- 旦 dàn dawn
- 暮 mù dusk
Word meanings — Line 6
- 江 jiāng river
- 柳 liǔ willows
- 共 gòng share
- 風 fēng wind
- 煙 yān mist
Word meanings — Line 7
- 已 yǐ already
- 是 shì am
- 長 cháng Chang
- 沙 shā sha
- 傅 fù tutor
Word meanings — Line 8
- 從 cóng from
- 今 jīn now
- 又 yòu again
- 幾 jǐ how many
- 年 nián years
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
鄉心新歲切，
天畔獨潸然。
老至居人下，
春歸在客先。
嶺猨同旦暮，
江柳共風煙。
已是長沙傅，
從今又幾年。
Translation
Longing for home grows urgent at the new year;
alone at the sky's edge, I am in tears.
Old age arrives while I remain beneath others;
spring returns ahead of the traveler.
Mountain apes share my dawns and dusks;
river willows share the wind and mist.
Already I am another Tutor of Changsha—
how many more years from now?
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?
鄉心新歲切，
Pronunciation hint
xīn
Reveal meaning and translation
新 — new
Longing for home grows urgent at the new year;
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
嶺猨同旦暮，
Pronunciation hint
tóng
Reveal meaning and translation
同 — share
Mountain apes share my dawns and dusks;
-
Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
從今又幾年。
Pronunciation hint
yòu
Reveal meaning and translation
又 — again
how many more years from now?
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 new year far from home
切 gives longing urgency as the new year begins. 天畔 sets that feeling at the sky's edge. 獨 makes the sense of distance personal, while 潸然 lets it show in tears.
Lines 3–4 — What arrives first
老至 gives age the verb of arrival. 居人下 concerns remaining in a subordinate position. 春歸 then lets spring do what the traveler cannot yet do, return. 在客先 makes it painfully clear which return has happened first.
Lines 5–6 — The company of repeated days
同 and 共 are words for sharing. The apes share the daily hours of dawn and dusk, while the riverside willows share wind and mist. The living details make the length of the traveler’s stay felt.
Lines 7–8 — An earlier exile in the present
長沙傅 invokes Jia Yi, the Han adviser sent to tutor the king of Changsha. Our text has 已是, “already am,” alongside the recorded 已似, “already resemble.” The English “another” signals the identification with Jia Yi. The final question measures the future in years. The calendar has turned and the traveler still cannot say when the stay will end.
Form and tone
This eight-line, five-character lüshi makes return the center of its contrast. Old age arrives, spring returns, but the traveler stays. The middle pairs measure that mismatch through position, season, and repeated daily company. The closing question leaves the future duration unresolved.
See lüshi 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 speaker uses Jia Yi as a historical counterpart for displacement and unsatisfactory office. The poem’s new year is not assigned an exact modern date here. Its allusion can be understood by comparison with Liu Changqing’s separate visit to the remembered site of Jia Yi’s house.
Continue with Liu Changqing and the homesickness reading path. Compare Passing Jia Yi’s House in Changsha and Hearing Wild Geese using the reading connections below.
Sources
新年作 (劉長卿) — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. Retains the main reading 已是 and the source graph 猨; the transcription also records 已似. 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 Changqing. “At the New Year” (新年作). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/new-year-liu-changqing
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.