Jueju (Two Golden orioles Sing in the Green Willows)

Four Paintings in One Window: Du Fu's Joyful View from the Cottage

Birdsong and Blue Sky

Du Fu's Jueju (绝句) is a seven-character quatrain (jueju) written around 764 CE, during his peaceful years at the Thatched Cottage in Chengdu. The poem opens like a bright splash of paint: Liang ge huang li ming cui liu, yi hang bai lu shang qing tian. (两个黄鹂鸣翠柳，一行白鹭上青天。) Two golden orioles sing among the fresh green willows. A line of white egrets rises into the blue sky. The colours—yellow, green, white, and blue—dance together, and the sounds of the birds fill the air. It is a small corner of the world, yet it feels full of life.

Snow in the Window, Boats at the Door

Then the view widens to take in everything beyond the cottage: Chuang han xi ling qian qiu xue, men bo dong wu wan li chuan. (窗含西岭千秋雪，门泊东吴万里船。) The window frames the western mountains, where snow has sat for a thousand years. At the door, boats from distant Eastern Wu are moored, ready to travel ten thousand miles. The poet does not move from his chair. He simply looks out, and the whole world comes to him—ancient snow in one direction, far rivers in the other. It is one of the most famous examples in Chinese poetry of making a small room feel larger than the sky.

A Moment of Peace

This poem was written at a rare happy time in Du Fu's life. After years of war and wandering, he had found a home in Chengdu. The birds, the willows, the snow, and the boats are not just scenery; they are the picture of a man who finally has a door to look out from. The joy is quiet, but it is real. For a few short years, the world outside his window was beautiful, and he had the peace to notice it.