On the Pool: A Child in a Boat
池上二絕（其二）
Chí shàng èr jué · qí èr
A child tries to keep a lotus-gathering trip secret, but the duckweed preserves the route. Read the original Chinese with pinyin, word meanings, an original English translation, and notes.
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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.
Word meanings — Line 1
- 小娃 xiǎo wá little child
- 撐 chēng pole
- 小艇 xiǎo tǐng small boat
Word meanings — Line 2
- 偷 tōu secretly
- 采 cǎi gather
- 白蓮 bái lián white lotus
- 回 huí return
Word meanings — Line 3
- 不解 bù jiě not know how
- 藏 cáng hide
- 蹤跡 zōng jì tracks
Word meanings — Line 4
- 浮萍 fú píng duckweed
- 一道 yí dào one path
- 開 kāi open
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
小娃撐小艇，
偷采白蓮回。
不解藏蹤跡，
浮萍一道開。
Translation
A little child poles a little boat,
coming back with white lotus gathered in secret.
Not knowing how to hide the traces,
the child leaves one open lane through the duckweed.
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?
小娃撐小艇，
Pronunciation hint
xiǎo wá
Reveal meaning and translation
小娃 — little child
A little child poles a little boat,
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
不解藏蹤跡，
Pronunciation hint
bù jiě
Reveal meaning and translation
不解 — not know how
Not knowing how to hide the traces,
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
浮萍一道開。
Pronunciation hint
fú píng
Reveal meaning and translation
浮萍 — duckweed
the child leaves one open lane through the duckweed.
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.
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Line-by-line notes
Lines 1–2: a small boat on a secret errand
The two 小 give both child and boat a small scale. 撐 is to pole the boat, an action the English names rather than replacing it with rowing. 偷 modifies the gathering, and 回 places us on the return. 白蓮 tells us what plant the child gathered and leaves its part unspecified.
Lines 3–4: a path the child cannot hide
不解 means lacking the know-how. 藏蹤跡 tells us what the child has failed to do before the poem shows the evidence. 一道開 moves the eye to one strip opened in the 浮萍, the floating duckweed. The English supplies “leaves” to connect the child’s motion to this visible result. There is no scene of punishment. The reader gets to spot the trail first.
Form and tone
Four five-character lines move from action to its unintended evidence. The first pair follows the child outward and back; the second lets the water surface tell the story. 回 and 開 close the rhyming even lines. The last word is an opening, not a moral judgment.
See the jueju guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin; no historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
This is the second poem in a pair. The first shows monks playing a board game in bamboo shade, with their moves heard rather than their bodies seen. Both pieces make small signs reveal activity. Here the observer can reconstruct a journey from the water’s surface, without any narrated confrontation or punishment.
Read more by Bai Juyi, or follow the nature shelf. The English translation, gloss, and notes are original to PoemWell.
Sources
池上二絕, public transcription. The second of the two poems, beginning 小娃撐小艇. We retain 采 and 蹤跡. 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
Bai Juyi. “On the Pool: A Child in a Boat” (池上二絕（其二）). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/on-the-pool-two
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.