A Spring Outing at Qujiang, Sent to Bai
同水部張員外籍曲江春遊寄白二十二舍人
Tóng shuǐ bù Zhāng yuán wài Jí Qūjiāng chūn yóu jì Bái èr shí èr shè rén
An outing beside flowering Qujiang prompts a challenge to an absent friend. Read how three lines of spring scenery become a teasing invitation.
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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
- 漠 mò spreading
- 漠 mò spreading
- 輕 qīng light
- 陰 yīn cloud cover
- 晚 wǎn evening
- 自 zì by itself
- 開 kāi opens
Word meanings — Line 2
- 青 qīng blue
- 天 tiān sky
- 白 bái bright
- 日 rì sun
- 映 yìng shines on
- 樓 lóu towers
- 臺 tái terraces
Word meanings — Line 3
- 曲 qū Qu
- 江 jiāng jiang
- 水 shuǐ water
- 滿 mǎn full
- 花 huā flowers
- 千 qiān thousand
- 樹 shù trees
Word meanings — Line 4
- 有 yǒu have
- 底 dǐ what
- 忙 máng busy
- 時 shí time
- 不 bù not
- 肯 kěn willing
- 來 lái come
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
漠漠輕陰晚自開，
青天白日映樓臺。
曲江水滿花千樹，
有底忙時不肯來。
Translation
The thin, spreading cloud cover clears toward evening;
blue sky and bright sun light the towers and terraces.
Qujiang is full of water, a thousand trees full of flowers:
what keeps you so busy that you will not come?
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?
漠漠輕陰晚自開，
Pronunciation hint
yīn
Reveal meaning and translation
陰 — cloud cover
The thin, spreading cloud cover clears toward evening;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
曲江水滿花千樹，
Pronunciation hint
mǎn
Reveal meaning and translation
滿 — full
Qujiang is full of water, a thousand trees full of flowers:
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
有底忙時不肯來。
Pronunciation hint
shí
Reveal meaning and translation
時 — time
what keeps you so busy that you will not come?
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 — The opening sky
漠漠 gives the thin cloud cover breadth before 自開 lets it clear of its own accord. 晚 places the opening toward evening. The second line balances sky and sun against built forms, with 映 making the towers and terraces visible in the new light. Both lines give the feeling of a view just released.
Lines 3–4 — The view becomes an invitation
水滿 and 花千樹 set the fullness of the water beside flowers spread through a thousand trees. The English repeats “full” to let those two kinds of abundance answer each other. 有底 is a colloquial “what” or “what reason,” and 不肯 means being unwilling. The question presses a little harder than “are you free?” The title tells us which friend stayed away, and the last line turns the preceding beauty into something he could still come and see.
Form and tone
The seven-character quatrain reserves its direct address for the final line. This delayed question changes the function of the preceding three lines from landscape description to persuasion. Its conversational ending is particularly clear beside the long, formal titles of the officials in the Chinese title.
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 title identifies Zhang Ji as the companion on the outing and Bai Juyi as the recipient. Their official designations and family-ranking numbers are part of the social address. The teasing question does not prove that Bai was negligent at work or unfriendly; it is the poem’s invitation.
Continue with Han Yu and the nature reading path. Compare Early Spring, Presented to Zhang Eighteen, II and A Question for Liu Nineteen using the reading connections below.
Sources
同水部張員外籍曲江春遊寄白二十二舍人 — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. The displayed traditional text follows this reading. 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. “A Spring Outing at Qujiang, Sent to Bai” (同水部張員外籍曲江春遊寄白二十二舍人). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/spring-outing-at-qujiang
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.