Home › Poems › New Year's Day on the Farm
Tián Jiā Yuán RìNew Year's Day on the Farm 田家元日
Meng Haoran on farmers reading the New Year's Day weather to forecast the harvest.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
昨夜斗回北
zuó yè dòu huí běi
今朝岁起东
jīn zhāo suì qǐ dōng
田家占气候
tián jiā zhàn qì hòu
共说此年丰
gòng shuō cǐ nián fēng
Simplified characters; traditional title: 田家元日. 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
Last night the Dipper's handle turned to the north;
this morning the new year rises in the east.
The farm folk read the signs of weather,
and all agree: this year will be abundant.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Meng Haoran on farmers reading the New Year's Day weather to forecast the harvest. The scene stays with you.
Background
Meng Haoran on farmers reading the New Year's Day weather to forecast the harvest.
Key words
- 昨夜 zuó yè
- last night
- 斗回 dòu huí
- the Dipper turns; the season turns
- 今朝 jīn zhāo
- this morning; today
About the poet: Meng Haoran
Meng Haoran spent most of his life as a recluse near his home of Xiangyang, never holding high office. A friend of Li Bai and Wang Wei, he is a leading voice of the Tang "landscape and pastoral" school, admired for plain words and quiet feeling.
Lifetime: 689–740. Other famous works: Spring Dawn (春晓); Visiting an Old Friend's Farm (过故人庄); Mooring on the Jiande River (宿建德江); Looking at Dongting Lake (望洞庭湖赠张丞相); New Year's Day on the Farm (田家元日); Summer Evening at the South Pavilion (夏日南亭怀辛大).
More by Meng Haoran
- Spring Dawn春晓
- Visiting an Old Friend's Farm过故人庄
- Mooring on the Jiande River宿建德江
- Summer Evening at the South Pavilion夏日南亭怀辛大