Thoughts on a Traveling Night
旅夜書懷
Lǚ yè shū huái
A tall mast under immense stars gives way to the image of a single gull between heaven and earth. Read the Chinese, pinyin, word meanings, and original English translation.
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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
- 細草 xì cǎo fine grass
- 微風 wēi fēng slight wind
- 岸 àn bank
Word meanings — Line 2
- 危檣 wēi qiáng high mast
- 獨 dú alone
- 夜 yè night
- 舟 zhōu boat
Word meanings — Line 3
- 星垂 xīng chuí stars hang low
- 平野 píng yě level country
- 闊 kuò wide
Word meanings — Line 4
- 月 yuè moon
- 湧 yǒng surge
- 大江 dà jiāng great river
- 流 liú flow
Word meanings — Line 5
- 名 míng name or reputation
- 豈 qǐ can it be
- 文章 wén zhāng writing
- 著 zhù become known
Word meanings — Line 6
- 官 guān official career
- 應 yīng supposedly or should
- 老病 lǎo bìng age and illness
- 休 xiū end
Word meanings — Line 7
- 飄飄 piāo piāo drifting
- 何所似 hé suǒ sì like what
Word meanings — Line 8
- 天地 tiān dì heaven and earth
- 一 yì one
- 沙鷗 shā ōu sandbank gull
English translation by PoemWell.
Read the whole poem
Original
細草微風岸，
危檣獨夜舟。
星垂平野闊，
月湧大江流。
名豈文章著，
官應老病休。
飄飄何所似，
天地一沙鷗。
Translation
Fine grass, a slight wind, the bank;
a high mast, alone at night, a boat.
Stars hang low over the wide level country;
the moon surges with the great river's flow.
Can my name be known merely for writing?
Office, supposedly, ends because of age and illness.
Drifting and drifting, what am I like?
One sandbank gull between heaven and earth.
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?
細草微風岸，
Pronunciation hint
xì cǎo
Reveal meaning and translation
細草 — fine grass
Fine grass, a slight wind, the bank;
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
名豈文章著，
Pronunciation hint
wén zhāng
Reveal meaning and translation
文章 — writing
Can my name be known merely for writing?
-
Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
天地一沙鷗。
Pronunciation hint
tiān dì
Reveal meaning and translation
天地 — heaven and earth
One sandbank gull between heaven and earth.
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: details just within reach
The first line gives fine grass, slight wind, and a bank. The second adds a mast and one boat at night. 危 in 危檣 means high. The English keeps the brief noun phrases with few verbs so the reader has to assemble the scene around the boat.
Lines 3–4: the horizon opens
垂 gives the stars a downward position and makes the plain look wider. 湧 gives the moon’s appearance the motion of the 大江. The English lets it surge with the river, which allows the reader to picture the reflected light moving in the current.
Lines 5–6: questions around literary and official life
豈 makes the question about 文章 and fame pointed. 應 makes the account of retirement sound provisional, hence “supposedly” in the English. The lines set the public explanation of a life beside the speaker’s private doubts without specifying a particular official decision.
Lines 7–8: how small the drifting looks
飄飄 keeps the movement going while 何所似 asks for a likeness. The answer needs only 一沙鷗 within 天地. The phrase does not explicitly repeat the speaker’s “I,” so the English leaves the gull as an image on its own. One small moving creature brings the expanded landscape of lines 3–4 back to the scale of the lone boat.
Form and tone
This five-character regulated verse expands from grass and mast to stars and river, then returns to one creature. The even-line rhyme 舟, 流, 休, 鷗 binds that expansion and contraction. Parallel form can contain an unsettled speaker.
See the regulated verse guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The title marks a traveler’s nighttime thoughts. The poem supplies age, illness, and an uneasy relation to public recognition, but not a complete career chronology. Its last scale, one gull against 天地, lets the personal uncertainty remain visible in the landscape.
Continue with Du Fu or the nature shelf.
Sources
Chinese text compared with 旅夜書懷, public transcription on Wikisource. Punctuation is editorial; the English translation 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 Fu. “Thoughts on a Traveling Night” (旅夜書懷). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/thoughts-on-a-traveling-night
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.