The Ferry at Yiyang
- Poetry of Liu Guo

《弋阳渡头》

English Rendering

All day cart-wheels grind through yellow mud,

I dread the pheasant's cry from barren mulberries.

Wind and rain know not if spring's come or gone—

Willows trail their green tresses low over half the river.

The Ferry at Yiyang by Liu Guo
The Ferry at Yiyang by Liu Guo

Original Text (中文原文)

车声尽日滑黄泥,怕听空桑叫竹鸡。

风雨不知春早晚,柳条拖绿半江低。

Analysis & Context

This poem depicts scenes at the ferry of Yiyang County in Jiangxi. Traveling through spring's subtle transformations, the poet captures nature's delicate shifts and life's minute details, expressing both anticipation for spring and lament over time's passage. The work exemplifies Song dynasty poets' keen observation and rich inner worlds, reflecting their sensitivity to life and nature amid turbulent social currents.

Reader's Companion

The Essence of the Verse

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.

Reading Between the Lines

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.

The Masters' Directory

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 Chinese Poems in English  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

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.