Home › Poems › Wind

FēngWind 风

Li Jiao (李峤, also known as Li Chiao)｜Early Tang｜five-character quatrain

Li Jiao on wind: it strips autumn leaves, opens spring flowers, raises waves, bends bamboo.

Original Chinese text with pinyin

解落三秋叶
jiě luò sān qiū yè

能开二月花
néng kāi èr yuè huā

过江千尺浪
guò jiāng qiān chǐ làng

入竹万竿斜
rù zhú wàn gān xié

Simplified characters; traditional title: 風.

It can strip the leaves of late autumn

and open the flowers of early spring.

Crossing the river, it raises thousand-foot waves;

entering the bamboo, it bends ten thousand stems.

Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.

解落三秋叶 · jiě luò sān qiū yè — It can strip the leaves of late autumn

能开二月花 · néng kāi èr yuè huā — and open the flowers of early spring.

过江千尺浪 · guò jiāng qiān chǐ làng — Crossing the river, it raises thousand-foot waves;

入竹万竿斜 · rù zhú wàn gān xié — entering the bamboo, it bends ten thousand stems.

Li Jiao on wind: it strips autumn leaves, opens spring flowers, raises waves, bends bamboo. The scene stays with you.

Li Jiao on wind: it strips autumn leaves, opens spring flowers, raises waves, bends bamboo.

Li Jiao wrote many yongwu poems; his short poem on wind is still taught to children.

Lifetime: 644–713. Other famous works: Wind (风).