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Bo Suàn ZiBu Suan Zi 卜算子

Li Zhiyi (李之仪, also known as Li Chih-i)｜Northern Song｜ci (song lyric)

Two people drinking from the same Yangtze who cannot meet. A love song.

Original Chinese text with pinyin

我住长江头
wǒ zhù cháng jiāng tóu

君住长江尾
jūn zhù cháng jiāng wěi

日日思君不见君
rì rì sī jūn bú jiàn jūn

共饮长江水
gòng yǐn cháng jiāng shuǐ

只愿君心似我心
zhǐ yuàn jūn xīn shì wǒ xīn

定不负相思意
dìng bù fù xiāng sī yì

Simplified characters; traditional title: 卜算子. 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.

I live at the head of the Yangtze,

you live at its tail.

Day after day I think of you and never see you,

yet we drink from the same river.

I only hope your heart is like my heart —

then I will not have longed for you in vain.

Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.

我住长江头 · wǒ zhù cháng jiāng tóu — I live at the head of the Yangtze,

君住长江尾 · jūn zhù cháng jiāng wěi — you live at its tail.

日日思君不见君 · rì rì sī jūn bú jiàn jūn — Day after day I think of you and never see you,

共饮长江水 · gòng yǐn cháng jiāng shuǐ — yet we drink from the same river.

只愿君心似我心 · zhǐ yuàn jūn xīn shì wǒ xīn — I only hope your heart is like my heart —

定不负相思意 · dìng bù fù xiāng sī yì — then I will not have longed for you in vain.

Two people drinking from the same Yangtze who cannot meet. A love song. The scene stays with you.

Two people drinking from the same Yangtze who cannot meet. A love song.

Li Zhiyi's Busuanzi of lovers at either end of the Yangtze is classic.

Lifetime: 1048–1117. Other famous works: Bu Suan Zi (卜算子).