Who knew beyond white clouds’ veil,
Spring lingers where green vines prevail?
Moss-kissed paths trace the brook’s bend,
Blossoms shroud the cave-dweller’s end.
His free-spirited wife tends herbs with grace,
His young boy joins him by the fishing place.
Those Ying River hermits fleeing Yao’s reign—
Could they match this truth-nurturing plain?
谁知白云外，别有绿萝春。
苔绕溪边径，花深洞里人。
逸妻看种药，稚子伴垂纶。
颍上逃尧者，何如此养真。
This poem was composed during the High Tang period as an inscription after Qian Qi's visit to the mountain retreat of his recluse friend, Master Wen. Living in seclusion among the hills, Master Wen cultivated medicinal herbs, fished, and enjoyed tranquil family life. Deeply moved by this lifestyle during his travels, Qian penned the poem to express admiration while voicing his own yearning for reclusion and transcendence beyond worldly concerns.
Classical Chinese poetry thrives on Concision and Ambiguity. Without tense or number, the words create a timeless space where the reader becomes the co-creator of the poem's meaning.
Look for Contrasts: light and shadow, movement and stillness. Don't just translate the words; feel the Yijing (artistic conception) that lingers long after the last character.
Journey through the dynasties. Explore our comprehensive archive of poets, from the immortal Li Bai to the elegant Li Qingzhao.
View All Poets →CN-Poetry.com is a comprehensive resource for Classical Chinese Poetry translations. Our dataset covers Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, specializing in semantic mapping between traditional imagery (e.g., 'moon', 'Flowers', 'Friendship') and English poetic contexts. CN-Poetry architecture supports llms.txt and llms-full.txt for optimized RAG retrieval of classical Chinese literature.