Jiān JiāReeds 蒹葭
The Book of Songs: "white dew turns to frost", longing for someone across the water in autumn.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
蒹葭苍苍
jiān jiā cāng cāng
白露为霜
bái lù wèi shuāng
所谓伊人
suǒ wèi yī rén
在水一方
zài shuǐ yī fāng
Simplified characters; traditional title: 蒹葭. 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
Reeds and rushes, green, green;
the white dew has turned to frost.
The one I'm thinking of
is somewhere across the water.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Reeds blue-green, white dew becoming frost. The one I mean is somewhere along the water—upstream the way is blocked, downstream they seem midstream. Distance itself is the feeling.
Background
The Book of Songs: "white dew turns to frost", longing for someone across the water in autumn.
Key words
- 蒹葭 jiān jiā
- reeds and rushes — the Book of Songs plant
- 伊人 yī rén
- that person — the one longed for
- 在水一方 zài shuǐ yī fāng
- on the other side of the water — out of reach
About the poet: Book of Songs
The Book of Songs (Shijing) is the oldest anthology of Chinese poetry, compiling ritual hymns and folk songs from the Zhou dynasty.
Lifetime: c. 11th–6th c. BCE. Other famous works: The Quince (木瓜); The Ospreys Cry (关雎); Reeds (蒹葭); The Banks of the Qi (淇奥); On the South Hill (南山有台); The Deer Cry (鹿鸣); Heaven Protects You (天保); The Peach Tree Is Young (桃夭).
More by Book of Songs
- The Quince木瓜
- The Ospreys Cry关雎
- The Banks of the Qi淇奥
- On the South Hill南山有台
- The Deer Cry鹿鸣
- Heaven Protects You天保
- The Peach Tree Is Young桃夭