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Lín Ān Chūn Yǔ Chū JìSpring Rain Clearing in Lin'an 临安春雨初霁
Lu You on spring rain in Lin'an: tomorrow morning, apricot blossom sold in the lane.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
小楼一夜听春雨
xiǎo lóu yī yè tīng chūn yǔ
深巷明朝卖杏花
shēn xiàng míng cháo mài xìng huā
Simplified characters; traditional title: 臨安春雨初霽. 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
In my small upstairs room I listened all night to the spring rain;
tomorrow morning, in the deep lane, someone will sell apricot blossoms.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Lu You on spring rain in Lin'an: tomorrow morning, apricot blossom sold in the lane. The scene stays with you.
Background
Lu You on spring rain in Lin'an: tomorrow morning, apricot blossom sold in the lane.
Key words
- 深巷 shēn xiàng
- a deep alley; quiet lane
- 小楼 xiǎo lóu
- a small upper room; little tower
- 一夜 yī yè
- in a single night; overnight
About the poet: Lu You
Lu You is the most prolific poet in Chinese history, with nearly ten thousand poems. Throughout his life he urged the Southern Song to recover the north from the Jurchen Jin; patriotism and rural life are his two great themes.
Lifetime: 1125–1210. Other famous works: Visiting a Village West of the Mountains (游山西村); To My Son (示儿); Phoenix Hairpin (钗头凤); Plum Blossom Quatrain (梅花绝句); Spring Rain Clearing in Lin'an (临安春雨初霁); Reading on a Winter Night (冬夜读书示子聿).
More by Lu You
- To My Son示儿
- Visiting a Village West of the Mountains游山西村
- Plum Blossom Quatrain梅花绝句
- Reading on a Winter Night冬夜读书示子聿