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Tang Dynasty Jueju Han Yu

Spring Snow: The New Year Has No Flowers Yet

春雪·新年都未有芳華

Chūn xuě · xīn nián dōu wèi yǒu fāng huá

Spring arrives slowly, and snow appears impatient for blossoms. Follow the playful transformation of falling flakes into flowers among the trees.

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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

新年都未有芳華，

xīn nián dōu wèi yǒu fāng huá

In the new year there are still no flowers at all;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 新 xīn new
  2. 年 nián year
  3. 都 dōu at all
  4. 未 wèi not yet
  5. 有 yǒu have
  6. 芳 fāng fragrant
  7. 華 huá bloom
02

二月初驚見草芽。

èr yuè chū jīng jiàn cǎo yá

only in the second month am I startled by grass shoots.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 二 èr second
  2. 月 yuè month
  3. 初 chū first
  4. 驚 jīng surprised
  5. 見 jiàn see
  6. 草 cǎo grass
  7. 芽 yá shoots
03

白雪卻嫌春色晚，

bái xuě què xián chūn sè wǎn

White snow, impatient with spring's late colors,

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 白 bái white
  2. 雪 xuě snow
  3. 卻 què yet
  4. 嫌 xián resents
  5. 春 chūn spring
  6. 色 sè color
  7. 晚 wǎn late
04

故穿庭樹作飛花。

gù chuān tíng shù zuò fēi huā

deliberately threads the courtyard trees as flying blossoms.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 故 gù deliberately
  2. 穿 chuān passes through
  3. 庭 tíng courtyard
  4. 樹 shù trees
  5. 作 zuò acts as
  6. 飛 fēi flying
  7. 花 huā flowers

English translation by PoemWell.

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Original

新年都未有芳華，

二月初驚見草芽。

白雪卻嫌春色晚，

故穿庭樹作飛花。

Translation

In the new year there are still no flowers at all;

only in the second month am I startled by grass shoots.

White snow, impatient with spring's late colors,

deliberately threads the courtyard trees as flying blossoms.

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?

    新年都未有芳華，

    Pronunciation hint

    wèi

    Reveal meaning and translation

    未 — not yet

    In the new year there are still no flowers at all;

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

    白雪卻嫌春色晚，

    Pronunciation hint

    xián

    Reveal meaning and translation

    嫌 — resents

    White snow, impatient with spring's late colors,

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

    故穿庭樹作飛花。

    Pronunciation hint

    shù

    Reveal meaning and translation

    樹 — trees

    deliberately threads the courtyard trees as flying blossoms.

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 — Waiting for a sign

新年 and 二月 belong to the traditional calendar. 都未有 gives the absence of flowers some force. The first sign is merely 草芽, a little growth at ground level, and it surprises the observer. The English puts “only” next to the second month to convey how long it has taken for anything visibly springlike to appear.

Lines 3–4 — Snow loses patience

The subject changes to 白雪. 卻 marks the turn as snow starts to resent spring's lateness. 嫌 carries that impatience, and 故 gives the imagined action a purpose. In 穿庭樹, the flakes move through trees that still lack blossoms. 作飛花 makes them play the part of flowers in flight. The little shoot is evidence of the real spring, while the last line supplies a flowering made entirely of motion. Compare the direction of the image with Han Yu’s Late Spring, where pale seeds fly like snow.

Form and tone

Four seven-character lines move from delayed expectation to an imagined remedy. The third line changes the agent: after the human surprise, snow takes over the emotional action. The last three characters 作飛花 make the whole snowfall a performance of flowering.

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

This short Spring Snow must be distinguished from other Han Yu poems of the same name. The selected anthology supplies the complete four-line text. Read Late Spring alongside it: one poem makes seeds resemble snow, the other makes snow resemble blossoms.

Continue with Han Yu and the nature reading path. Compare Late Spring: Grass and Trees and River Snow using the reading connections below.

Sources

文苑英華/卷0154 — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. The four-line 春雪 beginning 新年 is printed as 同前 under Han Yu in Wenyuan yinghua, juan 154; it is distinct from his longer poems with the same title. 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. “Spring Snow: The New Year Has No Flowers Yet” (春雪·新年都未有芳華). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/spring-snow-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.