绝句絕句

Two orioles, a line of egrets, ancient snow and waiting ships — a window framed into a poem.

liǎng两gě个huáng lí黄鹂míng鸣cuì翠liǔ柳，

yī xíng一行bái lù白鹭shǎng上qīng tiān青天。

chuāng窗hán含xī西líng岭qiān qiū千秋xuě雪，

mén门bó泊Dōng Wú东吴wàn lǐ万里chuán船。

Line by line

两个黄鹂鸣翠柳，兩個黃鸝鳴翠柳， Two golden orioles sing in the green willows;
一行白鹭上青天。一行白鷺上青天。 a line of white egrets climbs the blue sky.
窗含西岭千秋雪，窗含西嶺千秋雪， My window holds the western ridge’s thousand-year snow;
门泊东吴万里船。門泊東吳萬里船。 at my gate moor boats bound ten thousand li for Wu.

The poet & the story

Du Fu (712–770), revered as the “Sage of Poetry”, wrote this in a rare peaceful interlude at his thatched cottage in Chengdu around 764, after years of war and displacement. The cottage is now one of China’s most visited literary shrines.

Interpretation

Two golden orioles sing in green willows; a line of white egrets climbs the blue sky. His window frames the eternal snow of the western ranges; at his gate moor boats that could sail ten thousand li east to Wu. The quatrain is a masterclass in colour and framing — and beneath the stillness, those distant boats hint at a longing to finally go home.