Orchid and Cassia
感遇十二首·其一
Gǎn Yù Shí Èr Shǒu · Qí Yī
Zhang Jiuling's orchid and cassia flourish in their own seasons, prompting a question about whether natural worth needs an admirer.
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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
- 蘭 lán orchid
- 葉 yè leaves
- 春 chūn spring
- 葳 wēi lush
- 蕤 ruí drooping
Word meanings — Line 2
- 桂 guì cassia
- 華 huá flowers
- 秋 qiū autumn
- 皎 jiǎo bright
- 潔 jié pure
Word meanings — Line 3
- 欣 xīn flourishing
- 欣 xīn flourishing
- 此 cǐ this
- 生 shēng living
- 意 yì vigor
Word meanings — Line 4
- 自 zì naturally
- 爾 ěr so
- 為 wéi make
- 佳 jiā fine
- 節 jié season
Word meanings — Line 5
- 誰 shéi who
- 知 zhī knows
- 林 lín forest
- 棲 qī dwell
- 者 zhě one
Word meanings — Line 6
- 聞 wén sense
- 風 fēng breeze
- 坐 zuò thereby
- 相 xiāng mutually
- 悅 yuè delight
Word meanings — Line 7
- 草 cǎo plants
- 木 mù trees
- 有 yǒu have
- 本 běn original
- 心 xīn heart
Word meanings — Line 8
- 何 hé why
- 求 qiú seek
- 美 měi beautiful
- 人 rén person
- 折 zhé pluck
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
蘭葉春葳蕤，
桂華秋皎潔。
欣欣此生意，
自爾為佳節。
誰知林棲者，
聞風坐相悅。
草木有本心，
何求美人折。
Translation
Orchid leaves grow lush in spring;
cassia flowers shine clear in autumn.
Such flourishing, such impulse to grow—
each makes its own season beautiful.
Who would think a forest dweller,
catching their scent on the breeze, would take such delight?
Plants and trees have a nature of their own;
why should they seek a fine person's hand to pluck them?
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?
蘭葉春葳蕤，
Pronunciation hint
chūn
Reveal meaning and translation
春 — spring
Orchid leaves grow lush in spring;
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
誰知林棲者，
Pronunciation hint
lín
Reveal meaning and translation
林 — forest
Who would think a forest dweller,
-
Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
何求美人折。
Pronunciation hint
měi
Reveal meaning and translation
美 — beautiful
why should they seek a fine person's hand to pluck them?
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 1–4 · Plants in their own seasons
Spring belongs to the luxuriant orchid leaves in 葳蕤. Autumn belongs to the bright, clear cassia flowers, with 華 used in its sense of flower. 欣欣 gathers the two kinds of flourishing into 生意, the impulse to grow. 自爾 carries that growth into what the plants do of themselves. Each can make a season fine without needing a person to judge it first.
Lines 5–6 · An admirer comes into the picture
聞風 can describe sensing a breeze-borne fragrance and can also suggest hearing of someone's qualities. The translation follows the fragrance, keeping the scene with its plants and the person in the woods. 坐 is read in the sense of “thereby.” The delight is the observer's response to something already there.
Lines 7–8 · What plucking can and cannot confer
本心 gives the plants an inward nature of their own. 美人 may suggest a worthy or ideal person as well as a beautiful one, so the English “fine person” keeps room for both. 何求 asks what the plants would have to seek in being plucked. An admirer can discover the flowers and take pleasure in them. The growth that made that pleasure possible began before anyone noticed.
Form and tone
These eight five-character lines belong to old-style verse; eight lines alone do not make a poem regulated verse. The argument develops through paired seasons, an observer, and a final question. Pinyin is modern, and no historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
This is the complete first poem of Zhang Jiuling's twelve-poem Ganyu sequence. Reading the plants as figures for human integrity is supported by the poem's own words 心 and 美人. Assigning every plant and admirer to a named court figure would go beyond the text. Its nature is both observed and reflective.
Sources
Chinese text follows the first of Ganyu shi'er shou in Quan Tang shi, juan 47, reading 蘭葉, 此生意, 相悅, and 本心. 爲 is normalized to 為. Punctuation is editorial. The English rendering and notes are original to PoemWell.
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
Zhang Jiuling. “Orchid and Cassia” (感遇十二首·其一). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/orchid-and-cassia
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.