On Youzhou Terrace
登幽州臺歌
Dēng Yōuzhōu tái gē
Looking toward both past and future, a solitary speaker feels the immense duration of the world. 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
- 前 qián before
- 不見 bú jiàn do not see
- 古人 gǔ rén people of old
Word meanings — Line 2
- 後 hòu after
- 不見 bú jiàn do not see
- 來者 lái zhě those who will come
Word meanings — Line 3
- 念 niàn think of
- 天地 tiān dì heaven and earth
- 之 zhī connecting particle
- 悠悠 yōu yōu vast and enduring
Word meanings — Line 4
- 獨 dú alone
- 愴然 chuàng rán grief-stricken
- 而 ér and
- 涕 tì tears
- 下 xià fall
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
前不見古人，
後不見來者。
念天地之悠悠，
獨愴然而涕下。
Translation
Before me, I see none of the people of old;
after me, none of those yet to come.
Thinking of heaven and earth stretching endlessly,
alone, overwhelmed with sorrow, I let the tears fall.
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?
前不見古人，
Pronunciation hint
bú jiàn
Reveal meaning and translation
不見 — do not see
Before me, I see none of the people of old;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
念天地之悠悠，
Pronunciation hint
tiān dì
Reveal meaning and translation
天地 — heaven and earth
Thinking of heaven and earth stretching endlessly,
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Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
獨愴然而涕下。
Pronunciation hint
chuàng rán
Reveal meaning and translation
愴然 — grief-stricken
alone, overwhelmed with sorrow, I let the tears fall.
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: looking in two directions through time
前 and 後 first suggest directions from the speaker’s position. 古人 and 來者 make them temporal too. The paired 不見 keeps the result the same whether the speaker looks to the past or to people yet to come. English “before” and “after” allow both meanings to remain. The absence can be read as a longing to find someone across time who would understand.
Lines 3–4: the thought produces the tears
念 turns an act of looking into an act of thinking. The repeated 悠悠 gives heaven and earth extent and duration. 獨 places one person against that scale, then 愴然 names the grief. 涕 means tears here. The opening two lines are five characters each and the closing two are six, giving the thought and its bodily consequence room to unfold.
Form and tone
The first two phrases have five characters each; the next two have six. This expanding shape is not a regular five-character quatrain, despite the four-line display. The opening repetitions of 不見 establish a pattern that the longer emotional ending breaks open. We classify the song with gushi.
See the gushi guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin; no historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The title names a terrace at Youzhou. Its historical associations can sharpen the sense of looking for figures from the past, but the lines themselves do not give a catalogue of rulers or a dated incident. The poem makes absence felt in two temporal directions before the speaker responds bodily through tears.
Read more by Chen Zi’ang, or follow the memory shelf. The English translation, gloss, and notes are original to PoemWell.
Sources
登幽州臺歌, public transcription. The public transcription points to 《全唐詩》 juan 83. We retain the four phrases with lengths five, five, six, and six. 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
Chen Zi’ang. “On Youzhou Terrace” (登幽州臺歌). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/on-youzhou-terrace
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.