Chí ShàngOn the Pond 池上
A child steals white lotus and forgets to hide the trail. A summer scene by Bai Juyi.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
小娃撑小艇
xiǎo wá chēng xiǎo tǐng
偸采白莲回
tōu cǎi bái lián huí
不解藏踪迹
bù jiě cáng zōng jì
浮萍一道开
fú píng yī dào kāi
Simplified characters; traditional title: 池上.
English translation
A little child poles a little boat,
sneaking off with white lotus he has picked.
He doesn't know to hide his tracks:
a trail opens through the duckweed behind him.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
A child steals white lotus and forgets to hide the trail. A summer scene by Bai Juyi. The scene stays with you.
Background
A child steals white lotus and forgets to hide the trail. A summer scene by Bai Juyi.
Key words
- 小娃 xiǎo wá
- a little child
- 踪迹 zōng jì
- traces; footprints
About the poet: Bai Juyi
Bai Juyi (also romanized Po Chü-i; courtesy name Letian) wrote in a famously plain style — legend says he read drafts to an old woman and revised anything she could not understand. An outspoken official, he was exiled to Jiangzhou and later governed Hangzhou and Suzhou. His poems were hugely popular in Heian Japan.
Lifetime: 772–846. Other famous works: On the Night of the Fifteenth of the Eighth Month, on Duty in the Palace, Thinking of Yuan Zhen (八月十五日夜禁中独直对月忆元九); A Question for Liu the Nineteenth (问刘十九); A New Mountain Cottage Below Incense Burner Peak, Written on the East Wall (香炉峰下新卜山居草堂初成偶题东壁); Grass on the Ancient Plain: A Farewell (赋得古原草送别); Song of Everlasting Sorrow (长恨歌); The Song of the Lute (琵琶行); The Old Charcoal Seller (卖炭翁); Evening Song by the River (暮江吟); On the Pond (池上); White Cloud Spring (白云泉); Remembering the South (忆江南); Sent to Xianyou Temple (送王十八归山寄题仙游寺); Lotus-Picking Song (采莲曲); Spring Walk by Qiantang Lake (钱塘湖春行); To Yin, Master of Music (寄殷协律); Spring on the Lake (春题湖上); Peach Blossoms at Dalin Temple (大林寺桃花); Night Snow (夜雪).
More by Bai Juyi
- A New Mountain Cottage Below Incense Burner Peak, Written on the East Wall香炉峰下新卜山居草堂初成偶题东壁
- Song of Everlasting Sorrow长恨歌
- Grass on the Ancient Plain: A Farewell赋得古原草送别
- A Question for Liu the Nineteenth问刘十九
- On the Night of the Fifteenth of the Eighth Month, on Duty in the Palace, Thinking of Yuan Zhen八月十五日夜禁中独直对月忆元九
- Evening Song by the River暮江吟
- White Cloud Spring白云泉
- Remembering the South忆江南