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Jú HuāChrysanthemums 菊花

Yuan Zhen (元稹, also known as Yüan Chen, Yuan Weizhi)｜Mid Tang｜seven-character quatrain

Yuan Zhen on why he loves chrysanthemums: after them, no flowers bloom. An autumn poem.

Original Chinese text with pinyin

秋丛绕舎似陶家
qiū cóng rào shè shì táo jiā

遍绕篱边日渐斜
biàn rào lí biān rì jiàn xié

不是花中偏爱菊
bú shì huā zhōng piān ài jú

此花开尽更无花
cǐ huā kāi jǐn gèng wú huā

Simplified characters; traditional title: 菊花.

Autumn clumps surround the house, like Tao Yuanming's home;

I circle the fence again and again as the sun sinks.

It's not that among flowers I favour the chrysanthemum —

it's that when this one is done, no flowers are left.

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

秋丛绕舎似陶家 · qiū cóng rào shè shì táo jiā — Autumn clumps surround the house, like Tao Yuanming's home;

遍绕篱边日渐斜 · biàn rào lí biān rì jiàn xié — I circle the fence again and again as the sun sinks.

不是花中偏爱菊 · bú shì huā zhōng piān ài jú — It's not that among flowers I favour the chrysanthemum —

此花开尽更无花 · cǐ huā kāi jǐn gèng wú huā — it's that when this one is done, no flowers are left.

Yuan Zhen on why he loves chrysanthemums: after them, no flowers bloom. An autumn poem. The scene stays with you.

Yuan Zhen on why he loves chrysanthemums: after them, no flowers bloom. An autumn poem.

Yuan Zhen, with Bai Juyi, forms the Yuan-Bai pair of Mid Tang.

Lifetime: 779–831. Other famous works: Chrysanthemums (菊花).