Sending Liu West from Wuwei
武威送劉判官赴磧西行軍
Wǔwēi sòng Liú pànguān fù Qìxī xíngjūn
Heat, a swift horse, and a horn sounding into dawn give Cen Shen’s farewell to Adjutant Liu its compressed military energy.
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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
- 火 huǒ Fire
- 山 shān Mountain
- 五 wǔ fifth
- 月 yuè month
- 行 xíng traveling
- 人 rén people
- 少 shǎo few
Word meanings — Line 2
- 看 kàn watch
- 君 jūn you
- 馬 mǎ horse
- 去 qù go
- 疾 jí swift
- 如 rú like
- 鳥 niǎo bird
Word meanings — Line 3
- 都 dū Protector
- 護 hù General
- 行 xíng field
- 營 yíng camp
- 太 tài Great
- 白 bái White; Venus
- 西 xī west
Word meanings — Line 4
- 角 jiǎo horn
- 聲 shēng sound
- 一 yí one
- 動 dòng stirs
- 胡 hú frontier
- 天 tiān sky
- 曉 xiǎo dawns
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
火山五月行人少，
看君馬去疾如鳥。
都護行營太白西，
角聲一動胡天曉。
Translation
At Fire Mountain in the fifth month, travelers are few;
I watch your horse depart as swiftly as a bird.
The Protector-General's field camp lies west of Venus;
one stir of the horn, and the frontier sky is dawn.
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?
火山五月行人少，
Pronunciation hint
yuè
Reveal meaning and translation
月 — month
At Fire Mountain in the fifth month, travelers are few;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
都護行營太白西，
Pronunciation hint
yíng
Reveal meaning and translation
營 — camp
The Protector-General's field camp lies west of Venus;
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
角聲一動胡天曉。
Pronunciation hint
dòng
Reveal meaning and translation
動 — stirs
one stir of the horn, and the frontier sky is dawn.
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: an almost empty road
火山 names the Fire Mountain region. 五月 is the fifth lunar month. 行人少 establishes few travelers in the view, so 看君馬去 can pick out a single moving horse. 疾如鳥 makes the movement as swift as flight. The English keeps the speaker watching while Liu rides away.
Lines 3–4: hearing the far camp
都護 is the Protector-General, and 行營 is a field camp. 太白 is Venus in this reading. 西 carries the thought beyond the horse to the camp’s imagined western location. The sudden 一動 turns that distant place audible in one horn blast. The English puts the blast and 曉 next to each other so dawn arrives with the sound.
Form and tone
The seven-character jueju ends 少, 鳥, and 曉 with an oblique rhyme. The first pair watches a traveler accelerate; the second imagines the military destination waking. Modern pinyin is given without an unverified historical tone grid.
Historical context
Cen Shen sends a named official into a frontier setting through speed and sound. Compare Sending Cui Back to the Capital, where snow and tears mark another rider's departure, and Sending Yuan Er to Anxi, which holds the traveler over a cup before the road begins.
Sources
《全唐詩》, juan 201, Cen Shen; the Wikisource transcription's main reading is followed. Punctuation is 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
Cen Shen. “Sending Liu West from Wuwei” (武威送劉判官赴磧西行軍). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/sending-liu-west-from-wuwei
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.