Title: Bamboo Branch Song
▪ 竹枝词
Author: Liu YuXi ▪ 刘禹锡
Poetic Form: júejù ▪ 绝句Apologies, individual character links no longer available for this poem...
1. (杨 + 柳) + (青 + 青) (江 + (水 + 平))
(willow + willow) + (aqua + aqua) + (river +
(water + level))
gloss: Willows (branches) touch the surface of
the blue-green river
2. 闻 + (郎 + (江 + 上) + (唱 + 歌 + 声))
to hear + (darling + (river + on) + (sing + song +
tone))
gloss: I hear my darling singing a song (voice
carrying over the water)
3. ((东 + 边) + (日 + 出)) + ((西 + 边) + 雨)
((east + side) + (sun + emerge)) + ((west + side)
+ rain)
gloss: It is sunny in the east, it rains in the west
4. 道 + 是 + ((无 + 晴) + 却 + (有 + 晴))
path + to be + ((no + sunny) + yet + (has +
sunny))
gloss: The path ahead is grey yet sunny
Bamboo Branch Song
translation by Jessica Alexander ©#1
Willows droop down to kiss the river's aqua crest;
I hear my darling's voice in song float across the
water.
To the east, the sun; to the west, the rain...
Nature is bitter cold yet kindly warm.