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Tang Dynasty Jueju Cen Shen

The Ninth Day on Campaign

行軍九日思長安故園

Xíng jūn jiǔ rì sī Cháng'ān gùyuán

An absent festival cup leads Cen Shen to imagine chrysanthemums blooming beside a battlefield at home in Chang’an.

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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

強欲登高去，

qiǎng yù dēng gāo qù

I try to make myself go climb a height,

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 強 qiǎng force oneself
  2. 欲 yù wish
  3. 登 dēng climb
  4. 高 gāo height
  5. 去 qù go
02

無人送酒來。

wú rén sòng jiǔ lái

but no one comes bringing wine.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 無 wú no
  2. 人 rén person
  3. 送 sòng brings
  4. 酒 jiǔ wine
  5. 來 lái come
03

遙憐故園菊，

yáo lián gù yuán jú

Far away, I grieve for the old garden's chrysanthemums—

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 遙 yáo afar
  2. 憐 lián pity
  3. 故 gù old
  4. 園 yuán garden
  5. 菊 jú chrysanthemums
04

應傍戰場開。

yīng bàng zhàn chǎng kāi

they must be blooming beside a battlefield.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 應 yīng must
  2. 傍 bàng beside
  3. 戰 zhàn battle
  4. 場 chǎng field
  5. 開 kāi bloom

English translation by PoemWell.

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Original

強欲登高去，

無人送酒來。

遙憐故園菊，

應傍戰場開。

Translation

I try to make myself go climb a height,

but no one comes bringing wine.

Far away, I grieve for the old garden's chrysanthemums—

they must be blooming beside a battlefield.

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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?

    強欲登高去，

    Pronunciation hint

    dēng

    Reveal meaning and translation

    登 — climb

    I try to make myself go climb a height,

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

    遙憐故園菊，

    Pronunciation hint

    gù

    Reveal meaning and translation

    故 — old

    Far away, I grieve for the old garden's chrysanthemums—

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

    應傍戰場開。

    Pronunciation hint

    zhàn

    Reveal meaning and translation

    戰 — battle

    they must be blooming beside a battlefield.

One more question: what changes?

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Line-by-line notes

Lines 1–2: keeping part of a festival

強欲 makes the wish to climb sound effortful. 登高 is a Double Ninth observance, and the expectation of wine makes 無人送酒來 a pointed absence. The lines show the speaker trying to keep one part of the day while lacking another. The English “try to make myself” gives the action its difficulty.

Lines 3–4: the garden pictured from a distance

遙 turns the attention across space to the 故園菊. 應 is an inference, and “must be” carries that imagined view into English. The flowers are probably blooming as they would at the festival. 傍戰場 changes what that ordinary flowering means. Notice how far the thought has moved from the missing wine to the danger beside a familiar garden.

Form and tone

The five-character jueju rhymes 來 and 開. Its movement is from an unavailable cup nearby to imagined flowers far away. 強 is read qiǎng for doing something with effort. Pinyin is modern Mandarin; no historical tone table is supplied.

Historical context

Cen Shen links a frontier campaign to a damaged idea of home. Compare A Farewell on the Ninth Day, where chrysanthemum wine is briefly shared, and Visiting an Old Friend's Farm, where the festival is still a reason to promise a return.

Sources

《全唐詩》, juan 201, Cen Shen; checked against the Wikisource transcription and its recorded variants. Punctuation is editorial.

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

Cen Shen. “The Ninth Day on Campaign” (行軍九日思長安故園). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/ninth-day-on-campaign

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.