POEM
泊船瓜洲Bó Chuán Guā ZhōuMooring at Guazhou
- Dynasty
- Song
- Author
- 王安石 Wáng Ānshí (Wang Anshi)
- Genre
- 七言绝句
- Lines
- 4
- Era
- c. 11th century
THE POEM — LINE BY LINE
Tap a line for word-by-word gloss.
#1京口瓜洲一水间Jīng kǒu guā zhōu yī shuǐ jiānJingkou and Guazhou, with only one stretch of water between,word by word
京jīngJingkou (京口: today's Zhenjiang)口kǒumouth (京口: Jingkou)瓜guāGuazhou (瓜洲: a Yangtze ferry town)洲zhōuislet (瓜洲: Guazhou)一yīone水shuǐwater; river间jiānbetween#2钟山只隔数重山Zhōng shān zhǐ gé shù chóng shānand Zhongshan lies just a few ridges beyond.word by word
钟zhōngZhongshan (钟山: the mountain south of Nanjing)山shānmountain只zhǐonly; just隔gébe separated by数shùseveral重chónglayer (数重山: a few ranges of hills)山shānmountain#3春风又绿江南岸Chūn fēng yòu lǜ jiāng nán ànThe spring wind has greened the south bank of the river again —word by word
#4明月何时照我还Míng yuè hé shí zhào wǒ huánwhen will the bright moon shine on my way home?word by word
POEM IN PLAIN ENGLISH
A plain-English guide, not a literary translationJingkou and Guazhou, with only one stretch of water between — and Zhongshan, my home, just a few ridges beyond. The spring wind has greened the south bank of the river again: when will the bright moon shine on my way home? The poem was written at a ferry crossing a few hours from home, and everything in it leans in that direction — the near shore, the greening year, the moon that rises and lights the road back. This is a plain-English guide, not a literary translation.
BACKGROUND & IMAGERY
Wang Anshi (1021-1086), the great Song reformer, wrote this while traveling between Nanjing (where his family lived, under Zhongshan) and the capital. The third line is the most famous 'green' in Chinese poetry: the story goes that he tried 'arrive', 'pass', 'fill' and a dozen other verbs before settling on 绿 — turning the noun 'green' into a verb, so that spring is an action, not a color. Some editions read 又绿 as 自绿 and 钟山 as 锺山; the text here follows the received school version (通行本).
TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-15
Sources
- 《宋诗鉴赏辞典》（上海辞书出版社）通行文本；部编版语文教材同文
- 本站飞花令语料 feihualing.db（poem 200948） — 文本以通行本为准，库本仅行级参考；库本异文'锺山祇隔数重山/春风自绿江南岸'（旧本用字），不予采用
- Original English paraphrase & gloss — 本站原创学习释义，非文学译本（plain-English guide, not a literary translation）
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