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Tang Dynasty Jueju Du Mu

Spring South of the River

江南春

Jiāng nán chūn

Orioles, blossoms, wine flags, and temples spread across Jiangnan. Follow the shift from a bright spring panorama to buildings half hidden by rain.

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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

千里鶯啼綠映紅，

qiān lǐ yīng tí lǜ yìng hóng

For a thousand li, orioles sing and green sets off red;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 千 qiān thousand
  2. 里 lǐ li
  3. 鶯 yīng orioles
  4. 啼 tí cry
  5. 綠 lǜ green
  6. 映 yìng sets off
  7. 紅 hóng red
02

水村山郭酒旗風。

shuǐ cūn shān guō jiǔ qí fēng

waterside villages, hill towns, wine flags in the wind.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 水 shuǐ water
  2. 村 cūn villages
  3. 山 shān mountain
  4. 郭 guō town walls
  5. 酒 jiǔ wine
  6. 旗 qí flags
  7. 風 fēng wind
03

南朝四百八十寺，

nán cháo sì bǎi bā shí sì

Four hundred and eighty temples of the Southern Dynasties—

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 南朝 nán cháo Southern Dynasties
  2. 四 sì four
  3. 百 bǎi hundred
  4. 八 bā eight
  5. 十 shí ten
  6. 寺 sì temples
04

多少樓臺煙雨中。

duō shǎo lóu tái yān yǔ zhōng

how many towers and terraces stand in mist and rain?

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 多 duō how
  2. 少 shǎo many
  3. 樓 lóu towers
  4. 臺 tái terraces
  5. 煙雨 yān yǔ misty rain
  6. 中 zhōng within

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

千里鶯啼綠映紅，

水村山郭酒旗風。

南朝四百八十寺，

多少樓臺煙雨中。

Translation

For a thousand li, orioles sing and green sets off red;

waterside villages, hill towns, wine flags in the wind.

Four hundred and eighty temples of the Southern Dynasties—

how many towers and terraces stand in mist and rain?

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?

    千里鶯啼綠映紅，

    Pronunciation hint

    tí

    Reveal meaning and translation

    啼 — cry

    For a thousand li, orioles sing and green sets off red;

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

    南朝四百八十寺，

    Pronunciation hint

    nán cháo

    Reveal meaning and translation

    南朝 — Southern Dynasties

    Four hundred and eighty temples of the Southern Dynasties—

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

    多少樓臺煙雨中。

    Pronunciation hint

    yān yǔ

    Reveal meaning and translation

    煙雨 — misty rain

    how many towers and terraces stand in mist and rain?

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: a whole region through a few signs

千里 gives the southern spring a wide span. 鶯啼 supplies sound, while 綠 and 紅 let color stand for foliage and blossom. The English preserves the colors without naming particular plants. In line 2, the phrases move from waterside villages to walled hill towns to wine-house flags. The final 風 supplies motion to the last of these.

Lines 3–4: the place has a history too

南朝 changes the scale from visible geography to a remembered era. 四百八十 makes the temples seem numerous without serving as a count of surviving buildings. 多少 then reopens that number as a question. 樓臺 are towers and terraces, and 煙雨 gives them an obscured setting. The first two lines bring a region into focus through color and movement. The last two make its past appear through weather that partly hides it.

Form and tone

The four seven-character lines arrange a bright, sounding present before a dimmer historical vista. The last two lines are grammatically linked: the named temples prompt the question about visible towers. Read the color and weather contrast before imposing a single moral on the poem.

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

Jiangnan means the country south of the Yangtze, while 南朝 points to the earlier Southern Dynasties. Their temples let the spring landscape hold a past as well as a present. The poem can invite reflection on religious patronage without becoming a statistical or archaeological report.

Continue with Du Mu and the nature reading path. Compare Wuyi Lane and A Mountain Walk using the reading connections below.

Sources

江南春 — 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

Du Mu. “Spring South of the River” (江南春). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/spring-south-of-the-river

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.