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Tang Dynasty Jueju Zhang Xu

A Spring Outing Meets Rain

春遊值雨

Chūn yóu zhí yǔ

An evening rain postpones Zhang Xu’s garden outing, and the east wind receives a request to make tomorrow possible.

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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.

01

欲尋軒檻列清尊，

yù xún xuān jiàn liè qīng zūn

I meant to find an open railing and set out the wine,

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 欲 yù wish
  2. 尋 xún seek
  3. 軒 xuān window
  4. 檻 jiàn railing
  5. 列 liè set out
  6. 清 qīng clear
  7. 尊 zūn wine vessel
02

江上煙雲向晚昏。

jiāng shàng yān yún xiàng wǎn hūn

but river mist and clouds darken toward evening.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 江 jiāng river
  2. 上 shàng above
  3. 煙 yān mist
  4. 雲 yún cloud
  5. 向 xiàng toward
  6. 晚 wǎn evening
  7. 昏 hūn dark
03

須倩東風吹散雨，

xū qiàn dōng fēng chuī sàn yǔ

We must ask the east wind to scatter this rain;

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 須 xū must
  2. 倩 qiàn ask
  3. 東 dōng east
  4. 風 fēng wind
  5. 吹 chuī blow
  6. 散 sàn disperse
  7. 雨 yǔ rain
04

明朝卻待入華園。

míng zhāo què dài rù huá yuán

tomorrow morning we can enter the flowering garden.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 明 míng next
  2. 朝 zhāo morning
  3. 卻 què then
  4. 待 dài wait to
  5. 入 rù enter
  6. 華 huá splendid
  7. 園 yuán garden

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

欲尋軒檻列清尊，

江上煙雲向晚昏。

須倩東風吹散雨，

明朝卻待入華園。

Translation

I meant to find an open railing and set out the wine,

but river mist and clouds darken toward evening.

We must ask the east wind to scatter this rain;

tomorrow morning we can enter the flowering garden.

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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?

    欲尋軒檻列清尊，

    Pronunciation hint

    jiàn

    Reveal meaning and translation

    檻 — railing

    I meant to find an open railing and set out the wine,

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

    須倩東風吹散雨，

    Pronunciation hint

    fēng

    Reveal meaning and translation

    風 — wind

    We must ask the east wind to scatter this rain;

  3. Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?

    明朝卻待入華園。

    Pronunciation hint

    dài

    Reveal meaning and translation

    待 — wait to

    tomorrow morning we can enter the flowering garden.

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 · An outing still in prospect

欲尋 makes the first line an intention. 軒檻 suggests a building's open windows and railing, a place where someone could set out the wine (列清尊) and look over the view. The river supplies the scene, but 煙雲 and 昏 let mist and cloud darken it toward evening. English “but” makes the interruption explicit across the two lines.

Lines 3–4 · Asking the wind for another chance

須倩 treats the east wind as someone whose help is needed. 吹散雨 imagines what it could do, blow the rain apart, and 明朝 shifts the intended visit to the next morning. 華園 names the garden in its flourishing or splendor. Compare 欲尋 at the start with 待入 at the end. The first venue would have allowed the speaker to set out the wine and look out. The ending puts the speaker outside the garden, ready to go in when the weather clears.

Form and tone

This seven-character jueju rhymes 尊, 昏, and 園. The modal words 欲 and 須 move from an intention to a necessary favor. The final 明朝 keeps the excursion in the future. Modern pinyin is supplied, with no inferred historical tone grid.

Historical context

Zhang Xu's nature is inconvenient but negotiable. Read Keeping a Guest in the Mountains beside it: there rain is no reason to leave, while here it delays entry. Ru Meng Ling places the weather in the previous night and asks what it has already done to flowers.

Sources

《全唐詩》, juan 117, checked in the Wikisource transcription. The main reading is followed; variant graphs 爲、却 are normalized to 為、卻. 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

Zhang Xu. “A Spring Outing Meets Rain” (春遊值雨). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/spring-outing-caught-in-rain

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