Home › Poems › An Autumn Night, for Qiu
Qiū Yè Jì Qiū Yuán WàiAn Autumn Night, for Qiu 秋夜寄丘员外
Wei Yingwu misses a friend on an autumn night and guesses he is awake too.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
怀君属秋夜
huái jūn shǔ qiū yè
散步咏凉天
sàn bù yǒng liáng tiān
山空松子落
shān kōng sōng zi luò
幽人应未眠
yōu rén yīng wèi mián
Simplified characters; traditional title: 秋夜寄丘員外.
English translation
I think of you on this autumn night,
strolling and chanting in the cool air.
In the empty hills the pine cones fall;
my hermit friend, too, must be awake.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Wei Yingwu misses a friend on an autumn night and guesses he is awake too. The scene stays with you.
Background
Wei Yingwu misses a friend on an autumn night and guesses he is awake too.
Key words
- 丘员外 qiū yuán wài
- Yuanwai Qiu — a courtesy title for a gentleman
- 松子 sōng zi
- pine nuts; pine seeds
- 幽人 yōu rén
- a recluse; a quiet person
About the poet: Wei Yingwu
Wei Yingwu was a palace guard in his youth who later became a thoughtful provincial governor. His landscape poems, often linked with those of Wang Wei and Meng Haoran, are calm, clear and gently melancholy.
Lifetime: c. 737–792. Other famous works: West Stream at Chuzhou (滁州西涧); An Autumn Night, for Qiu (秋夜寄丘员外).