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Tang Dynasty Jueju Wei Yingwu

The West Stream at Chuzhou

滁州西澗

Chúzhōu xī jiàn

Wei Yingwu’s West Stream at Chuzhou, with pinyin and English notes on secluded grass, a hidden oriole, swift spring water, and an unattended ferry boat.

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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

獨憐幽草澗邊生，

dú lián yōu cǎo jiàn biān shēng

I especially love the secluded grasses beside the stream;

Word meanings — Line 1
  1. 獨 dú especially
  2. 憐 lián love
  3. 幽草 yōu cǎo secluded grass
  4. 澗 jiàn stream
  5. 邊 biān beside
  6. 生 shēng grows
02

上有黃鸝深樹鳴。

shàng yǒu huáng lí shēn shù míng

above them, an oriole sings deep in the trees.

Word meanings — Line 2
  1. 上 shàng above
  2. 有 yǒu there is
  3. 黃鸝 huáng lí oriole
  4. 深 shēn deep
  5. 樹 shù trees
  6. 鳴 míng sings
03

春潮帶雨晚來急，

chūn cháo dài yǔ wǎn lái jí

Spring water, with the rain, runs swift toward evening;

Word meanings — Line 3
  1. 春 chūn spring
  2. 潮 cháo swelling water
  3. 帶 dài brings
  4. 雨 yǔ rain
  5. 晚 wǎn evening
  6. 來 lái comes
  7. 急 jí swift
04

野渡無人舟自橫。

yě dù wú rén zhōu zì héng

at the country ferry no one is there; the boat lies crosswise on its own.

Word meanings — Line 4
  1. 野渡 yě dù country ferry crossing
  2. 無 wú no
  3. 人 rén person
  4. 舟 zhōu boat
  5. 自 zì by itself
  6. 橫 héng lies crosswise

English translation by PoemWell.

Read the whole poem

Original

獨憐幽草澗邊生，

上有黃鸝深樹鳴。

春潮帶雨晚來急，

野渡無人舟自橫。

Translation

I especially love the secluded grasses beside the stream;

above them, an oriole sings deep in the trees.

Spring water, with the rain, runs swift toward evening;

at the country ferry no one is there; the boat lies crosswise on its own.

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?

    獨憐幽草澗邊生，

    Pronunciation hint

    yōu cǎo

    Reveal meaning and translation

    幽草 — secluded grass

    I especially love the secluded grasses beside the stream;

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

    春潮帶雨晚來急，

    Pronunciation hint

    yǔ

    Reveal meaning and translation

    雨 — rain

    Spring water, with the rain, runs swift toward evening;

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

    野渡無人舟自橫。

    Pronunciation hint

    yě dù

    Reveal meaning and translation

    野渡 — country ferry crossing

    at the country ferry no one is there; the boat lies crosswise on its own.

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

A chosen detail, then a hidden voice

獨憐 means especially to cherish or love. It declares a preference for the secluded grass rather than proving that no other observer is present. The next line moves upward to an oriole heard deep among trees. 黃鸝 is the bird’s name, not a yellow object placed beside a separate bird.

The selected text has 幽草, 生, and 深樹. The source records alternatives 芳, 行, and 處 in those positions. Our wording keeps the grass growing beside the stream rather than silently adopting a different action from another reading.

Swift water and a boat without a keeper

春潮帶雨 joins the spring water with rain; 晚來急 makes the flow urgent toward evening. Our translation keeps that association instead of claiming that the line gives a complete physical explanation of the current. 潮 need not be forced into a sea-tide setting here.

野渡 is a country ferry crossing. 無人 says no one is there in this view, and 自橫 lets the boat lie crosswise without someone directing it. The poem does not say the boat has capsized or the surrounding district has been abandoned.

Notice the tension between 急 and 自: the scene has energetic water but no named person controlling the boat. A political or autobiographical reading may develop from that contrast, but it remains an interpretation. Compare Night Rain Sent North, where swelling water is explicitly set beside a human question about returning.

What the crossing adds

渡 names a place for crossing, so even before the reader reaches 舟 the last line makes passage possible. The three words 無人 and 自 then remove the action one might expect at a ferry. Compare 生 and 鳴 in the opening with 橫 at the close. The grass grows, the bird calls, and the boat's last word records a position it holds while the water moves.

Form and tone

Four seven-character lines combine a vertical opening, grass below and bird above, with a horizontal ending at the ferry. The speaker’s “I” disappears after the initial preference. The closing 自 lets the boat’s ungoverned position answer the speed of the water.

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

Chuzhou is named in the title, but the poem gives an encounter rather than a survey of the town. Readings that connect its unattended boat with official withdrawal are interpretations. The grasses, birds, rain, and ferry already form a coherent scene without an imposed political code.

Continue with Wei Yingwu and the nature reading path. Compare After Rain, Walking to the River Ferry and Deer Enclosure using the reading connections below.

Read this poem alongside the contrasting selections in our rain poetry guide.

Sources

滁州西澗 — 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. The main readings 幽草, 生, and 深樹 are retained; the transcription records 芳, 行, and 處 as alternatives.

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

Wei Yingwu. “The West Stream at Chuzhou” (滁州西澗). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .

https://poemwell.org/poems/west-stream-at-chuzhou

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.