Viewing Mount Lu's Waterfall from Hukou
湖口望廬山瀑布泉
Hú Kǒu Wàng Lú Shān Pù Bù Quán
Zhang Jiuling follows Mount Lu's waterfall through purple haze, cloud, rainbow light, and a sound like rain under a clear sky.
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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.
Word meanings — Line 1
- 萬 wàn ten thousand
- 丈 zhàng zhang
- 洪 hóng vast
- 泉 quán spring
- 落 luò falls
Word meanings — Line 2
- 迢 tiáo far
- 迢 tiáo far
- 半 bàn half
- 紫 zǐ purple
- 氛 fēn haze
Word meanings — Line 3
- 奔 bēn rush
- 飛 fēi fly
- 流 liú flow
- 雜 zá mixed
- 樹 shù trees
Word meanings — Line 4
- 灑 sǎ spray
- 落 luò fall
- 出 chū emerge
- 重 chóng layered
- 雲 yún clouds
Word meanings — Line 5
- 日 rì sun
- 照 zhào shine
- 虹 hóng rainbow
- 蜺 ní secondary rainbow
- 似 sì resembles
Word meanings — Line 6
- 天 tiān sky
- 清 qīng clear
- 風 fēng wind
- 雨 yǔ rain
- 聞 wén heard
Word meanings — Line 7
- 靈 líng numinous
- 山 shān mountain
- 多 duō many
- 秀 xiù beautiful
- 色 sè colors
Word meanings — Line 8
- 空 kōng sky
- 水 shuǐ water
- 共 gòng together
- 氤 yīn mist
- 氳 yūn vapor
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
萬丈洪泉落，
迢迢半紫氛。
奔飛流雜樹，
灑落出重雲。
日照虹蜺似，
天清風雨聞。
靈山多秀色，
空水共氤氳。
Translation
A mighty torrent falls through ten thousand zhang;
far up, half of it lies in purple haze.
Rushing, flying, it streams among the trees,
scatters downward out of layered clouds.
In sunlight it resembles a rainbow;
under clear sky, wind and rain are heard.
The spirit-filled mountain has beauty in abundance:
sky and water mingle in its mist.
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?
萬丈洪泉落，
Pronunciation hint
hóng
Reveal meaning and translation
洪 — vast
A mighty torrent falls through ten thousand zhang;
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
日照虹蜺似，
Pronunciation hint
hóng
Reveal meaning and translation
虹 — rainbow
In sunlight it resembles a rainbow;
-
Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
空水共氤氳。
Pronunciation hint
gòng
Reveal meaning and translation
共 — together
sky and water mingle in its mist.
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 · Height in haze
洪泉 gives the water its force. The English retains zhang, the measure in 萬丈, to let the number suggest imaginative scale. 半 lets purple vapor cover part of the view, so the falling water is already shown as something the eye can see only in stages. The printed 洪 emphasizes the torrent's force. The recorded 紅 would bring red into the description.
Lines 3–4 · Water coming through trees and cloud
奔 and 飛 accelerate the flow, and 灑 makes it spread into spray. 重 is chóng here, “layered,” giving the clouds depth. The English reads 流雜樹 as streaming among the trees. The source also records 下雜樹, which would put a clearer downward verb into that line. 出 in the following line has the water emerging from the cloud layers.
Lines 5–6 · The waterfall makes its own weather
虹蜺 supplies the rainbow resemblance in sunlight. 聞 follows that visible effect with what can be heard, the sound of wind and rain under a clear sky. The translation keeps the weather and the sound distinct. A reader can see sunlight and hear something like a storm at once.
Lines 7–8 · Water becomes part of the air
靈山 and 秀色 open the view to the mountain's surrounding beauty. 氤氳 describes vapor mingling, and 共 lets sky and water share it. The height and the noise that made the waterfall conspicuous now help form an atmosphere extending beyond it.
Form and tone
This five-character regulated verse uses its middle couplets to balance motions and senses. The final couplet broadens a single waterfall into the mountain's surrounding atmosphere. Modern pinyin is offered without a reconstructed historical tone grid.
Historical context
The title places Zhang Jiuling's view at Hukou and names Mount Lu. Li Bai's waterfall poem makes a useful comparison: both use extravagant height and airborne water, while this longer poem repeatedly checks what the observer sees against what he hears.
Sources
Chinese text follows the main readings of Quan Tang shi, juan 48. Punctuation is editorial. English translation and annotations 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
Zhang Jiuling. “Viewing Mount Lu's Waterfall from Hukou” (湖口望廬山瀑布泉). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/viewing-lu-waterfall-from-hukou
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.