Welcome Rain on a Spring Night
春夜喜雨
Chūn yè xǐ yǔ
Du Fu’s Welcome Rain on a Spring Night, with pinyin and English notes on timely growth, one boat light, and the wet flowers imagined for dawn in Chengdu.
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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
- 好雨 hǎo yǔ good rain
- 知 zhī know
- 時節 shí jié season
Word meanings — Line 2
- 當春 dāng chūn when spring comes
- 乃 nǎi then
- 發生 fā shēng bring forth growth
Word meanings — Line 3
- 隨風 suí fēng follow the wind
- 潛 qián quietly or secretly
- 入夜 rù yè enter the night
Word meanings — Line 4
- 潤物 rùn wù moisten things
- 細 xì fine and gentle
- 無聲 wú shēng without sound
Word meanings — Line 5
- 野徑 yě jìng country paths
- 雲 yún clouds
- 俱 jù all
- 黑 hēi dark
Word meanings — Line 6
- 江船 jiāng chuán river boat
- 火 huǒ fire or lamp
- 獨 dú alone
- 明 míng bright
Word meanings — Line 7
- 曉 xiǎo at dawn
- 看 kàn look
- 紅溼 hóng shī wet red blossoms
- 處 chù place
Word meanings — Line 8
- 花 huā flowers
- 重 zhòng heavy
- 錦官城 jǐn guān chéng Brocade City, a name for Chengdu
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
好雨知時節，
當春乃發生。
隨風潛入夜，
潤物細無聲。
野徑雲俱黑，
江船火獨明。
曉看紅溼處，
花重錦官城。
Translation
Good rain knows its season;
when spring comes, it brings things to life.
It follows the wind secretly into the night,
moistening things softly, without a sound.
The country paths and clouds are all dark;
only a river boat's light shines.
At dawn, look where the red is wet:
flowers will be heavy with rain in Chengdu.
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?
好雨知時節，
Pronunciation hint
hǎo yǔ
Reveal meaning and translation
好雨 — good rain
Good rain knows its season;
-
Line 5 · What does the marked word mean?
野徑雲俱黑，
Pronunciation hint
yě jìng
Reveal meaning and translation
野徑 — country paths
The country paths and clouds are all dark;
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Line 8 · What does the marked word mean?
花重錦官城。
Pronunciation hint
jǐn guān chéng
Reveal meaning and translation
錦官城 — Brocade City, a name for Chengdu
flowers will be heavy with rain in Chengdu.
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: why the rain is good
知 gives the rain an apparent awareness of its season. 發生 carries the older sense of bringing forth growth, which the translation makes explicit as “brings things to life.” The praise in 好雨 rests on the timing named by 當春. The rain arrives when growing things can use it.
Lines 3–4: how the rain does its work
潛, qián, gives the arrival a quiet and almost secret manner. 隨風 carries it along with the wind, while 細 lets its action be gentle. 潤物 names what the moisture does, and 無聲 says how hard it is to hear. The speaker’s praise comes through attention to a subtle action.
Lines 5–6: where the eye can stop
俱 darkens the paths and clouds together. 獨 marks one exception in the light on a river boat. After the near silence of the rain, the poem gives the observer a single point to see. The darkness makes the lone light legible and prepares the change in color at dawn.
Lines 7–8: the anticipated result
曉看 shifts attention toward the coming morning. The translation uses “will” because it reads the wet red blossoms as an anticipation from the present night. 重 is zhòng, “heavy,” and gives the flowers the rain’s weight. 錦官城 is Chengdu. The joy named in the title becomes visible as a city wet with a rain that reached it quietly. Compare another anticipated morning or evening in Night Rain Sent North, where the future holds a conversation.
Form and tone
Eight five-character lines move from the rain’s quality to the night view and then to imagined morning. 生, 聲, 明, and 城 occupy the even-line rhymes. The central dark/light pair provides a sharply visible pause within an otherwise quiet process.
See the regulated verse guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; no unverified historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The final place-name identifies Chengdu. The pleasure is tied to timely moisture and growth, giving 喜 in the title a practical foundation. The poem can welcome a season without describing every leaf or making the rain speak.
Continue with Du Fu or the nature shelf.
Read this poem alongside the contrasting selections in our rain poetry guide.
Sources
Chinese text compared with 春夜喜雨, public transcription on Wikisource. Punctuation is editorial; the English translation and reading notes are original to PoemWell. This page retains 乃 in line 2; the source records 及 as an alternative.
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. “Welcome Rain on a Spring Night” (春夜喜雨). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/welcome-rain-on-a-spring-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.