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Tang Dynasty Lüshi Meng Haoran

Visiting an Old Friend’s Farm

過故人莊

Guò gùrén zhuāng

Meng Haoran visits an old friend’s farm: Chinese text, pinyin, and English notes on the feast, talk of crops, and a return planned for the Double Ninth festival.

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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

故人具雞黍，

gù rén jù jī shǔ

My old friend has prepared chicken and millet,

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 故人 gù rén old friend
  2. 具 jù prepares
  3. 雞 jī chicken
  4. 黍 shǔ millet
02

邀我至田家。

yāo wǒ zhì tián jiā

and invites me out to his farm.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 邀 yāo invites
  2. 我 wǒ me
  3. 至 zhì to
  4. 田家 tián jiā farm household
03

綠樹村邊合，

lǜ shù cūn biān hé

Green trees close around the village;

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 綠 lǜ green
  2. 樹 shù trees
  3. 村 cūn village
  4. 邊 biān edge
  5. 合 hé encircle
04

青山郭外斜。

qīng shān guō wài xié

blue-green hills slope beyond its bounds.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 青 qīng blue-green
  2. 山 shān hills
  3. 郭 guō boundary
  4. 外 wài beyond
  5. 斜 xié slant
05

開筵面場圃，

kāi yán miàn cháng pǔ

With the feast laid out, we face the threshing ground and garden,

Word meanings — Line 5
  1. 開 kāi set out
  2. 筵 yán feast
  3. 面 miàn face
  4. 場 cháng threshing ground
  5. 圃 pǔ garden
06

把酒話桑麻。

bǎ jiǔ huà sāng má

cups in hand, talking of mulberry and hemp.

Word meanings — Line 6
  1. 把 bǎ hold
  2. 酒 jiǔ wine
  3. 話 huà talk of
  4. 桑 sāng mulberry
  5. 麻 má hemp
07

待到重陽日，

dài dào chóng yáng rì

When the Double Ninth comes round,

Word meanings — Line 7
  1. 待 dài wait
  2. 到 dào until
  3. 重陽 chóng yáng Double Ninth festival
  4. 日 rì day
08

還來就菊花。

hái lái jiù jú huā

I'll be back to enjoy the chrysanthemums.

Word meanings — Line 8
  1. 還 hái again
  2. 來 lái come
  3. 就 jiù enjoy
  4. 菊花 jú huā chrysanthemum flowers

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

故人具雞黍，

邀我至田家。

綠樹村邊合，

青山郭外斜。

開筵面場圃，

把酒話桑麻。

待到重陽日，

還來就菊花。

Translation

My old friend has prepared chicken and millet,

and invites me out to his farm.

Green trees close around the village;

blue-green hills slope beyond its bounds.

With the feast laid out, we face the threshing ground and garden,

cups in hand, talking of mulberry and hemp.

When the Double Ninth comes round,

I'll be back to enjoy the chrysanthemums.

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?

    故人具雞黍，

    Pronunciation hint

    gù rén

    Reveal meaning and translation

    故人 — old friend

    My old friend has prepared chicken and millet,

  2. Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?

    開筵面場圃，

    Pronunciation hint

    miàn

    Reveal meaning and translation

    面 — face

    With the feast laid out, we face the threshing ground and garden,

  3. Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?

    還來就菊花。

    Pronunciation hint

    jú huā

    Reveal meaning and translation

    菊花 — chrysanthemum flowers

    I'll be back to enjoy the chrysanthemums.

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 · The meal begins before the visit

故人 is an old friend, and 具 means to prepare. 雞黍 names chicken and millet, placing two familiar foods before the invitation. 田家 makes the destination a farming household. Starting with 具 lets the reader see the host’s care before the speaker arrives.

Lines 3–4 · Looking in and out

合 lets trees gather around the village. 斜 puts the hills on a slant beyond its bounds. 郭 can suggest an outer wall or the surrounding limits of a settlement. The English chooses “bounds.” Read 村邊 and 郭外 in parallel: the visitor sees what encloses the village and what stretches beyond it.

Lines 5–6 · The view belongs to the household

The selected 開筵 lays out the feast. The familiar variant 開軒 opens a window, giving 面 a different action to follow. We translate the wording we print. 場圃 includes the threshing ground and garden or cultivated plot. 把酒 is holding the wine, and 話桑麻 gives the guests agricultural work to talk about. The fields and plants matter to the meal because they belong to the life of the household.

Lines 7–8 · The visitor takes the initiative

重陽 is the Double Ninth, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. 待到 sets that day in the future, and 就 gives the chrysanthemums something to come for and enjoy. The flowers mark the season without specifying chrysanthemum wine. 還來 gives the visitor the last act of hospitality, the promise to come again. Read the hoped-for future meeting in Night Rain Sent North beside it. Here the speaker can name the occasion.

Form and tone

This is a five-character lushi, eight lines organized into four couplets. The two middle pairs balance outward views, then the feast and its conversation. 家, 斜, 麻, and 花 occupy the even-line rhyme positions.

Our modern Mandarin pinyin reads 斜 as xié; it is not respelled to manufacture a modern rhyme with jiā. Historical rhyme and current pronunciation are different aids to reading. No historical tone grid is asserted here.

Historical context

Meng Haoran gives friendship a sequence: invitation, arrival into a landscape, shared food and talk, and a future return. The old friend is unnamed. A biographical identification is unnecessary to follow the poem's social precision.

Read A Question for Liu Nineteen for another modest gathering on the wine shelf. Bai Juyi ends before a visitor answers; Meng Haoran ends by volunteering another visit. Spring View uses the same eight-line form to hold a very different experience. Parallel lines can organize ease as well as grief.

The English translation and notes are PoemWell originals. The edition note is part of that reading: opening a feast and opening a window are both plausible scenes, but they are different texts.

Read this poem alongside the contrasting selections in our friendship and farewell guide.

Sources

《全唐詩》, juan 160, 過故人莊, checked against the individual transcription. This text follows the reading 開筵 rather than 開軒. 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

Meng Haoran. “Visiting an Old Friend’s Farm” (過故人莊). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/visiting-an-old-friends-farm

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.