Yiai Temple
遺愛寺
Yí’ài sì
Playing with stones, seeking flowers, and listening to water make an unhurried temple visit. Read the original Chinese with pinyin, word meanings, an original English translation, and notes.
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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
- 弄石 nòng shí play with stones
- 臨溪 lín xī beside the stream
- 坐 zuò sit
Word meanings — Line 2
- 尋花 xún huā seek flowers
- 繞寺 rào sì around the temple
- 行 xíng walk
Word meanings — Line 3
- 時時 shí shí from time to time
- 聞 wén hear
- 鳥語 niǎo yǔ birdsong
Word meanings — Line 4
- 處處 chù chù everywhere
- 是 shì is
- 泉聲 quán shēng sound of springs
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
弄石臨溪坐，
尋花繞寺行。
時時聞鳥語，
處處是泉聲。
Translation
Handling stones, I sit beside the stream;
looking for flowers, I walk around the temple.
From time to time I hear birds speaking;
everywhere, the sound of spring water.
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.
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Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?
弄石臨溪坐，
Pronunciation hint
nòng shí
Reveal meaning and translation
弄石 — play with stones
Handling stones, I sit beside the stream;
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Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
時時聞鳥語，
Pronunciation hint
shí shí
Reveal meaning and translation
時時 — from time to time
From time to time I hear birds speaking;
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Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
處處是泉聲。
Pronunciation hint
chù chù
Reveal meaning and translation
處處 — everywhere
everywhere, the sound of spring water.
One more question: what changes?
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Line-by-line notes
Lines 1–2: sit beside the stream, then walk
Read the verbs at the line ends: 坐 puts the speaker at rest and 行 sets them moving. 弄 is to handle or play with the stones. 臨 places that action beside the stream. 尋花 gives the walking a purpose, and 繞寺 gives it a route around the temple. The translation lets the body make the change of pace.
Lines 3–4: time becomes space
鳥語 describes birdsong as speech. 時時 marks how often the speaker hears it. The responding 處處 marks where the spring water is heard. The final 是 has no new “I hear” verb. The English leaves the last line as a sound that is simply there, which suits the way the poem moves from one walker to the place surrounding them.
Form and tone
The first pair balances 弄石 with 尋花 and sitting with walking. The second balances repetition in time with repetition across space. 行 and 聲 close the rhyming even lines. These correspondences are audible in twenty characters, without requiring an abstract explanation of the visit.
See the jueju guide for the form. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin; no historical tone grid is supplied.
Historical context
The title identifies the temple, while the lines attend to its surroundings rather than describe a shrine or a ceremony. A Buddhist setting does not make each stone or bird a coded doctrinal symbol. The reader can first follow the changes in posture, movement, and listening that give the visit its pace.
Read more by Bai Juyi, or follow the nature shelf. The English translation, gloss, and notes are original to PoemWell.
Sources
白香山詩集 (四庫全書本)/卷16, public transcription. 遺愛寺 in juan 16 of the Siku quanshu transcription of 《白香山詩集》. We normalize 遶 to 繞. Punctuation and reading-line divisions are 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
Bai Juyi. “Yiai Temple” (遺愛寺). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/yiai-temple
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