Pomegranate Blossoms at Zhang’s Lodging
詠張十一旅舍榴花
Yǒng Zhāng shí yī lǚ shè liú huā
Bright pomegranate flowers fill a quiet lodging in early summer. Read the contrast between their abundant color and the absence of visiting admirers.
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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
- 五 wǔ fifth
- 月 yuè month
- 榴 liú pomegranate
- 花 huā flowers
- 照 zhào shine
- 眼 yǎn eyes
- 明 míng bright
Word meanings — Line 2
- 枝 zhī branches
- 間 jiān among
- 時 shí at times
- 見 jiàn see
- 子 zǐ fruit
- 初 chū just
- 成 chéng forming
Word meanings — Line 3
- 可 kě worthy of
- 憐 lián pity
- 此 cǐ this
- 地 dì place
- 無 wú no
- 車 chē carriages
- 馬 mǎ horses
Word meanings — Line 4
- 顛 diān tumbling
- 倒 dǎo over
- 青 qīng green
- 苔 tái moss
- 落 luò fall
- 絳 jiàng crimson
- 英 yīng petals
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
五月榴花照眼明，
枝間時見子初成。
可憐此地無車馬，
顛倒青苔落絳英。
Translation
In the fifth month, pomegranate flowers blaze before the eyes;
among the branches, here and there, young fruit is forming.
A pity that no carriages and horses come to this place:
crimson petals tumble onto the green moss.
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?
五月榴花照眼明，
Pronunciation hint
huā
Reveal meaning and translation
花 — flowers
In the fifth month, pomegranate flowers blaze before the eyes;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
可憐此地無車馬，
Pronunciation hint
dì
Reveal meaning and translation
地 — place
A pity that no carriages and horses come to this place:
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
顛倒青苔落絳英。
Pronunciation hint
tái
Reveal meaning and translation
苔 — moss
crimson petals tumble onto the green moss.
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 — Flowers and first fruit
五月 places the poem in the fifth month of the traditional calendar. 照眼 makes the color almost a source of light, which the English carries in “blaze before the eyes.” The next line directs the eye between the branches. 子 means fruit, and 初成 catches it just beginning to form. The flowers and fruit are stages of growth visible on the same tree.
Lines 3–4 — Who is there to see?
可憐 can express admiration or pity. The English chooses “a pity” here because 無車馬 gives the speaker a reason to regret the absence of visitors. Carriages and horses stand for the people who would arrive with them. 顛倒 conveys the tumble of the petals, so the last line keeps motion as well as color. Notice the drop from the bright flowers at eye level to crimson against 青苔 underfoot. The cited anthology prints 青苔, which the English follows as “green moss.”
Form and tone
This seven-character quatrain moves from brilliance to neglect without abandoning color. The first and last lines frame the scene with light and red petals, while the middle identifies developing fruit and missing visitors. The final action is falling, not an explicit lesson about recognition.
See jueju for the larger formal pattern. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; a historical level/oblique grid is not inferred from those modern tones.
Historical context
The anthology’s title places the tree at Zhang Eleven’s lodging. The number is a form of personal designation, not the lodging’s street address. This page retains that title and its 青苔 reading rather than silently substituting the different forms found in other familiar presentations.
Continue with Han Yu and the nature reading path. Compare Late Spring: Grass and Trees and Peach Blossoms at Dalin Temple using the reading connections below.
Sources
廣羣芳譜/卷028 — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. Follows Guang qunfang pu, juan 28, which titles the poem 詠張十一旅舍榴花 and prints 青苔 in the last line. Punctuation and line breaks are editorial. Translation, glosses, and reading 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
Han Yu. “Pomegranate Blossoms at Zhang’s Lodging” (詠張十一旅舍榴花). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/pomegranate-blossoms-han-yu
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.