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Wǎn QíngClearing at Dusk 晚晴
"Heaven pities the hidden grass; people prize clear evenings": a summer evening clearing after rain.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
天意怜幽草
tiān yì lián yōu cǎo
人间重晚晴
rén jiān zhòng wǎn qíng
Simplified characters; traditional title: 晚晴. This is a long poem; only the best-known lines are shown, and “……” marks omitted passages.
Note on the text: This page presents a well-known excerpt; the full poem is longer in the traditional corpus.
English translation
Heaven takes pity on the hidden grass;
the world holds dear the clear sky at evening.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
"Heaven pities the hidden grass; people prize clear evenings": a summer evening clearing after rain. The scene stays with you.
Background
"Heaven pities the hidden grass; people prize clear evenings": a summer evening clearing after rain.
Key words
- 人间 rén jiān
- the human world; this mortal realm
- 天意 tiān yì
- heaven's will; the intent of the sky
- 怜幽 lián yōu
- cherishing the quiet and secluded
About the poet: Li Shangyin
Li Shangyin wrote dense, allusive and beautiful poems, many of them untitled love poems whose meaning is still debated. Caught between court factions, he never rose high in office.
Lifetime: c. 813–858. Other famous works: Night Rain: Sent North (夜雨寄北); Climbing Leyou Plain (登乐游原); Untitled (Hard Is the Meeting) (无题); The Ornate Zither (锦瑟); Clearing at Dusk (晚晴); Drunk Beneath the Flowers (花下醉); Frost and Moon (霜月).
More by Li Shangyin
- Climbing Leyou Plain登乐游原
- Night Rain: Sent North夜雨寄北
- Untitled (Hard Is the Meeting)无题
- The Ornate Zither锦瑟
- Drunk Beneath the Flowers花下醉
- Frost and Moon霜月