Ode to Geese
詠鵝
Yǒng é
Repeated calls give way to curved necks, white feathers, and red feet moving through green water. Read the original Chinese with pinyin, word meanings, an original English translation, and notes.
Read the poem
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
- 鵝 é goose
- 鵝 é goose
- 鵝 é goose
Word meanings — Line 2
- 曲項 qū xiàng curve their necks
- 向天 xiàng tiān toward the sky
- 歌 gē sing
Word meanings — Line 3
- 白毛 bái máo white feathers
- 浮 fú float
- 綠水 lǜ shuǐ green water
Word meanings — Line 4
- 紅掌 hóng zhǎng red feet
- 撥 bō paddle
- 清波 qīng bō clear ripples
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
鵝鵝鵝！
曲項向天歌。
白毛浮綠水，
紅掌撥清波。
Translation
Geese, geese, geese!
Bending their necks, they sing toward the sky.
White feathers float on green water;
red feet paddle the clear ripples.
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?
鵝鵝鵝！
Pronunciation hint
é
Reveal meaning and translation
鵝 — goose
Geese, geese, geese!
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
白毛浮綠水，
Pronunciation hint
bái máo
Reveal meaning and translation
白毛 — white feathers
White feathers float on green water;
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Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
紅掌撥清波。
Pronunciation hint
hóng zhǎng
Reveal meaning and translation
紅掌 — red feet
red feet paddle the clear ripples.
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 · The voice turns upward
The three calls of 鵝 appear together in the first reading line. Read them before the sentence describing the birds, and hear how long the poem can attend to their name alone. 曲, qū, means to bend, while 項 means the neck. 向天 points the song upward. 歌 makes the call sound like singing, and the English chooses the plural “geese” where Chinese leaves the number open.
Lines 3–4 · Two strokes of color
白毛 and 紅掌 show different parts of the same animals. 掌 is the flat foot here. Pair each color with its verb. 浮 lets white feathers float on green water. 撥 makes the red feet stroke through the clear ripples. The last line gives the feet an action that changes the water, while the earlier voice seems to lift away from it.
Form and tone
A three-character opening is followed by three five-character lines. Four displayed lines therefore do not make this a regular five-character jueju. We place it with gushi. 鵝, 歌, and 波 make the recurring sound easy to hear, while white against green and red against clear water organize the closing pair.
See the gushi guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin; no historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The source attaches a traditional account that Luo Binwang wrote this in childhood. That attribution is part of the poem’s reception, not something a reader must independently prove to notice its careful verbs. Its apparent simplicity depends on a sequence from repeated naming, through sound, to contrasting color and movement.
Read more by Luo Binwang, or follow the nature shelf. The English translation, gloss, and notes are original to PoemWell.
Sources
詠鵝, public transcription. The linked transcription gives the opening as three calls of 鵝. We group them in one reading line and preserve their repetition. Punctuation and reading-line divisions are 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
Luo Binwang. “Ode to Geese” (詠鵝). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/ode-to-geese
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.