Home › Poems › Liangzhou Song (Beyond Yumen Pass)
Liáng Zhōu CíLiangzhou Song (Beyond Yumen Pass) 凉州词
Wang Zhihuan: spring never reaches the frontier.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
黄河远上白云间
huáng hé yuǎn shàng bái yún jiān
一片孤城万仞山
yī piàn gū chéng wàn rèn shān
羌笛何须怨杨柳
qiāng dí hé xū yuàn yáng liǔ
春风不度玉门关
chūn fēng bù dù yù mén guān
Simplified characters; traditional title: 涼州詞.
English translation
The Yellow River rises far up among the white clouds;
A lonely town is lost amid the mountains proud.
Why should the Mongol flute complain no willows grow?
Beyond the Gate of Jade no vernal wind will blow.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The first line is a famous visual paradox: looking upstream, the Yellow River seems to rise into the clouds. The fortress is tiny among vast mountains. Then a soldier plays "Breaking the Willow," a farewell tune; the poet asks why bother — no willows grow here, because spring never passes the Jade Gate. The line is a gentle consolation and a hint that the court's favor does not reach the frontier troops.
Background
Also titled 出塞. The Jade Gate Pass (Yumen Guan) in Gansu marked the western edge of the Tang heartland.
Key words
- 万仞 wàn rèn
- ten thousand ren, immensely high
- 羌笛 qiāng dí
- the Qiang flute
- 杨柳 yáng liǔ
- willow; the tune "Breaking the Willow"
- 玉门关 Yùmén Guān
- Jade Gate Pass
About the poet: Wang Zhihuan
Wang Zhihuan was a High Tang poet of whom only six poems survive, yet two of them — "Climbing Stork Tower" and "Liangzhou Song" — are among the most famous in Chinese.
Lifetime: 688–742. Other famous works: Liangzhou Song (Beyond Yumen Pass) (凉州词); Climbing Stork Tower (登鹳雀楼).