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Tang Dynasty Lüshi Du Fu

Remembering My Brothers on a Moonlit Night

月夜憶舍弟

Yuè yè yì shè dì

A military night closes the roads while the speaker has no reliable news of his scattered brothers. Read the Chinese, pinyin, word meanings, and original English translation.

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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.

01

戍鼓斷人行，

shù gǔ duàn rén xíng

The garrison drum cuts off people's movement;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 戍鼓 shù gǔ garrison drum
  2. 斷 duàn cut off
  3. 人行 rén xíng people traveling
02

邊秋一雁聲。

biān qiū yí yàn shēng

in frontier autumn, a single goose calls.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 邊秋 biān qiū frontier autumn
  2. 一雁 yí yàn one goose
  3. 聲 shēng voice
03

露從今夜白，

lù cóng jīn yè bái

From tonight the dew is white;

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 露 lù dew
  2. 從 cóng from
  3. 今夜 jīn yè tonight
  4. 白 bái white
04

月是故鄉明。

yuè shì gù xiāng míng

the moon shines brightest back home.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 月 yuè moon
  2. 是 shì is
  3. 故鄉 gù xiāng old home
  4. 明 míng bright
05

有弟皆分散，

yǒu dì jiē fēn sàn

I have younger brothers, all scattered apart;

Word meanings — Line 5
  1. 有弟 yǒu dì have younger brothers
  2. 皆 jiē all
  3. 分散 fēn sàn scattered
06

無家問死生。

wú jiā wèn sǐ shēng

there is no family home where I can ask who lives or dies.

Word meanings — Line 6
  1. 無家 wú jiā no family home
  2. 問 wèn ask about
  3. 死生 sǐ shēng death and life
07

寄書長不達，

jì shū cháng bù dá

Letters sent so often fail to arrive—

Word meanings — Line 7
  1. 寄書 jì shū send letters
  2. 長 cháng continually
  3. 不達 bù dá do not arrive
08

況乃未休兵。

kuàng nǎi wèi xiū bīng

all the more now that the fighting has not stopped.

Word meanings — Line 8
  1. 況乃 kuàng nǎi all the more since
  2. 未 wèi not yet
  3. 休兵 xiū bīng cease fighting

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

戍鼓斷人行，

邊秋一雁聲。

露從今夜白，

月是故鄉明。

有弟皆分散，

無家問死生。

寄書長不達，

況乃未休兵。

Translation

The garrison drum cuts off people's movement;

in frontier autumn, a single goose calls.

From tonight the dew is white;

the moon shines brightest back home.

I have younger brothers, all scattered apart;

there is no family home where I can ask who lives or dies.

Letters sent so often fail to arrive—

all the more now that the fighting has not stopped.

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.

  1. Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?

    戍鼓斷人行，

    Pronunciation hint

    shù gǔ

    Reveal meaning and translation

    戍鼓 — garrison drum

    The garrison drum cuts off people's movement;

  2. Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?

    有弟皆分散，

    Pronunciation hint

    yǒu dì

    Reveal meaning and translation

    有弟 — have younger brothers

    I have younger brothers, all scattered apart;

  3. Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?

    況乃未休兵。

    Pronunciation hint

    kuàng nǎi

    Reveal meaning and translation

    況乃 — all the more since

    all the more now that the fighting has not stopped.

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 →

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Line-by-line notes

Lines 1–2: what the night sounds like

戍鼓 is a garrison drum. 斷 makes the military signal a cut in people’s movement. The sound that follows is 一雁聲, the call of one goose. The speaker hears a single voice after human traffic has stopped.

Lines 3–4: this night and the brightness of home

今夜 anchors the white dew in the present. 故鄉 pulls the moon away from that immediate place in the speaker’s feeling. “Brightest” gives English the preference carried by 月是故鄉明. It expresses the value of the remembered home rather than comparing measurements of light.

Lines 5–6: brothers without a common address

舍弟 is a modest title-word for one’s own younger brothers. 有弟 and 無家 give family bonds and the loss of a gathering place in a single pair. 死生 asks the most basic news about the scattered brothers, whether they have survived.

Lines 7–8: a letter that cannot close the distance

書 is a letter. 長不達 means that attempted messages keep failing to arrive. 況乃 adds the reason the failure is especially hard to overcome, the ongoing fighting. The first line’s interrupted passage of people returns at the end as the interrupted passage of letters.

Form and tone

The five-character regulated verse balances 有弟 against 無家, possession of family against the absence of a common home. 行, 聲, 明, 生, and 兵 form its recurring rhyme. The hopeful medium of a letter appears only to be denied reliable arrival.

See the regulated verse guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.

Historical context

The poem belongs to the Tang world of interrupted roads and warfare. Its final 兵 gives a concrete obstacle to family contact. Reading it beside a purely reflective moon poem reveals how much this moonlit scene is shaped by communication that cannot be trusted.

Continue with Du Fu or the homesickness shelf.

Sources

Chinese text compared with 月夜憶舍弟, public transcription on Wikisource. Punctuation is editorial; the English translation 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

Du Fu. “Remembering My Brothers on a Moonlit Night” (月夜憶舍弟). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/remembering-my-brothers-on-a-moonlit-night

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.