POEM
枫桥夜泊Fēng Qiáo Yè BóMooring at Night by Maple Bridge
- Dynasty
- Tang
- Author
- 张继 Zhāng Jì (Zhang Ji)
- Genre
- 七言绝句
- Lines
- 4
- Era
- c. 8th century
THE POEM — LINE BY LINE
Tap a line for word-by-word gloss.
#2江枫渔火对愁眠Jiāng fēng yú huǒ duì chóu miánriver maples and a fishing-boat lamp face a traveler's sleepless sorrow.word by word
江jiāngriver枫fēngmaple渔yúfishing (渔火: fishing-boat lamp)火huǒfire; lamp对duìface; opposite愁chóusorrow眠miánsleep#3姑苏城外寒山寺Gū sū chéng wài hán shān sìAt Hanshan Temple outside the city of Gusu,word by word
姑gūGusu (姑苏: old name of Suzhou)苏sūSuzhou (姑苏: Gusu)城chéngcity外wàioutside寒háncold; quiet山shānmountain寺sìtemple#4夜半钟声到客船Yè bàn zhōng shēng dào kè chuánthe midnight bell reaches the traveler's boat.word by word
POEM IN PLAIN ENGLISH
A plain-English guide, not a literary translationThe moon has set, crows cry, and frost fills the sky; on the river, maples and a fishing-boat's lamp keep company with a traveler who cannot sleep. From Hanshan Temple outside the city of Gusu, the midnight bell rings out — and reaches him on his boat. Every image is built to make the silence around one small boat feel enormous, and the sound of the distant bell makes the night suddenly very large and very lonely. This is a plain-English guide, not a literary translation.
BACKGROUND & IMAGERY
Zhang Ji (c. 715-c. 779) is remembered almost entirely for this one poem, which has made Hanshan Temple in Suzhou (Gusu) a place of pilgrimage for a thousand years. The boat, the lamp, the bell — all are held together by one sleepless traveler's sorrow (愁). Some editions read the second line as 江枫渔父 ('maples and an old fisherman'); the text here follows the received version (通行本).
TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-15
Sources
- 《唐诗三百首》通行本（中华书局点校本）
- 本站飞花令语料 feihualing.db（poem 397022） — 文本以通行本为准，库本仅行级参考（库本与通行本一致）；库中另存异文'江枫渔父对愁眠'，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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