Ode to the Willow
詠柳
Yǒng liǔ
A willow becomes jade and silk before a question reveals spring wind as its imagined craftsperson. Read the original Chinese with pinyin, word meanings, an original English translation, and notes.
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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
- 碧玉 bì yù green jade
- 妝成 zhuāng chéng adorn into form
- 一樹 yí shù a whole tree
- 高 gāo tall
Word meanings — Line 2
- 萬條 wàn tiáo countless strands
- 垂下 chuí xià hang down
- 綠絲絛 lǜ sī tāo green silk ribbons
Word meanings — Line 3
- 不知 bù zhī wonder
- 細葉 xì yè slender leaves
- 誰 shéi who
- 裁出 cái chū cut out
Word meanings — Line 4
- 二月 èr yuè second lunar month
- 春風 chūn fēng spring wind
- 似 sì like
- 剪刀 jiǎn dāo scissors
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
碧玉妝成一樹高，
萬條垂下綠絲絛。
不知細葉誰裁出？
二月春風似剪刀。
Translation
Green jade adorns a whole tall tree;
ten thousand green silk ribbons hang down.
Who, I wonder, cut out these slender leaves?
The spring wind of the second month is like scissors.
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?
碧玉妝成一樹高，
Pronunciation hint
bì yù
Reveal meaning and translation
碧玉 — green jade
Green jade adorns a whole tall tree;
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Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
不知細葉誰裁出？
Pronunciation hint
bù zhī
Reveal meaning and translation
不知 — wonder
Who, I wonder, cut out these slender leaves?
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Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
二月春風似剪刀。
Pronunciation hint
èr yuè
Reveal meaning and translation
二月 — second lunar month
The spring wind of the second month is like scissors.
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 whole tree and its strands
碧玉 supplies the polished green of jade. 妝成 looks at the tree as something already dressed and complete. 一樹 takes in the whole shape, then 萬條 turns the eye to the many trailing parts. 絛 means a cord or ribbon, and 垂下 keeps the comparison physical. The branches hang as silk ribbons would. The number gives the hanging lines abundance.
Lines 3–4 — Who made the leaves?
細葉 focuses the eye further, from a tree and its branches down to the edge of one slender leaf. 裁 asks who cut it into shape. The English uses “cut out” to keep the craft implied by the verb. 似 in the answer keeps the wind in the realm of likeness. The second month’s wind, in the traditional calendar, works like scissors. The poem first shows a finished ornament and only then imagines how it was made.
Form and tone
The seven-character quatrain begins with two statements, then turns into a question and answer. 高, 絛, and 刀 rhyme, carrying the poem from the tree’s height to the tool imagined at work upon it. Repeated material images make the final transformation feel prepared rather than arbitrary.
See the jueju guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin; no historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The poem belongs to a tradition of writing on objects and plants. Its subject is recognizable, yet the account advances by changes in comparison: jade, silk, cut leaves, scissors. A reader can enjoy that sequence without treating every plant as a fixed emblem of the author’s biography or public career.
Read more by He Zhizhang, or follow the nature shelf. The English translation, gloss, and notes are original to PoemWell.
Sources
詠柳 (賀知章), public transcription. The transcription also gives 柳枝詞 as a title. We normalize its graph 縧 to 絛 without changing the word. 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
He Zhizhang. “Ode to the Willow” (詠柳). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/ode-to-the-willow
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.