Home › Poems › Visiting a Garden, No One Home
Yóu Yuán Bù ZhíVisiting a Garden, No One Home 游园不値
Ye Shaoweng finds a garden locked: "a spray of red apricot reaches over the wall".
Original Chinese text with pinyin
应怜屐齿印苍苔
yīng lián jī chǐ yìn cāng tái
小扣柴扉久不开
xiǎo kòu chái fēi jiǔ bù kāi
春色满园关不住
chūn sè mǎn yuán guān bú zhù
一枝红杏出墙来
yī zhī hóng xìng chū qiáng lái
Simplified characters; traditional title: 遊園不値.
English translation
Perhaps they fear my clogs will mark the green moss;
I knock softly at the brushwood gate; it stays shut a long time.
But the spring that fills the garden can't be locked in —
one branch of red apricot reaches out over the wall.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
You should hate carriage tracks printing the moss. Knock long—no one opens. But spring in the garden cannot be shut in: one red apricot branch comes over the wall.
Background
Ye Shaoweng finds a garden locked: "a spray of red apricot reaches over the wall".
Key words
- 游园不値 yóu yuán bù zhí
- visiting a garden and missing the host
- 红杏 hóng xìng
- red apricot blossoms
- 出墙 chū qiáng
- climbing over the wall
About the poet: Ye Shaoweng
Ye Shaoweng's red apricot over the wall is endlessly quoted.
Lifetime: Southern Song. Other famous works: Visiting a Garden, No One Home (游园不値).