POEM
山行Shān XíngTraveling in the Mountains
- Dynasty
- Tang
- Author
- 杜牧 Dù Mù (Du Mu)
- Genre
- 七言绝句
- Lines
- 4
- Era
- c. 9th century
THE POEM — LINE BY LINE
Tap a line for word-by-word gloss.
#1远上寒山石径斜Yuǎn shàng hán shān shí jìng xiéFar up the cold mountain, a stony path goes slanting;word by word
#2白云生处有人家Bái yún shēng chù yǒu rén jiāwhere the white clouds rise, there is a house.word by word
#3停车坐爱枫林晚Tíng chē zuò ài fēng lín wǎnI stop the carriage, loving the maple grove at dusk;word by word
停tíngstop车chēcarriage; cart坐zuòbecause (坐爱: loving; for love of)爱àilove枫fēngmaple林língrove; woods晚wǎnevening; dusk#4霜叶红于二月花Shuāng yè hóng yú èr yuè huāthe frost-red leaves glow redder than the flowers of early spring.word by word
POEM IN PLAIN ENGLISH
A plain-English guide, not a literary translationFar up the cold mountain a stony path goes slanting, and where the white clouds rise there is a house. I stop the carriage — I love this maple grove at dusk: the frost-red leaves glow redder than the flowers of early spring. Autumn, in this poem, does not lose to spring; it beats spring. The last line is one of the most quoted lines about autumn in Chinese. This is a plain-English guide, not a literary translation.
BACKGROUND & IMAGERY
Du Mu (803-852) was riding in the hills in late autumn when he wrote this — or rather, when he ordered his driver to stop, so he could look. The famous third line turns on a word easy to misread: 坐 here means 'because' (not 'sit'), so the line reads 'I stop the carriage because I love the maple grove at dusk'. Editions differ between 白云生处 ('where clouds rise') and 白云深处 ('deep in the clouds'); 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
- 《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 397014） — 文本以通行本为准，库本仅行级参考（库本与通行本一致）
- 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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