Spring, River, Flowers, Moon, Night

Intersecting with Eternity

As David Lattimore, the translator of the following version of the ‘Spring, River, Flowers, Moon, Night’ 春江花月夜 notes, little is known about the poem’s author Zhang Ruoxu (張若虛, c.660-c.720). Lattimore tells us that Zhang

‘was a native of Yangzhou and once occupied a minor military post in Yanzhou (Shandong Province). His literary reputation was established in the capital during the first years of the eighth century in conjunction with a group of poets, all from the Lower Yangtze Basin, which included He Zhizhang [賀知章].’

Wen Yiduo 聞一多, a celebrated Republican-era litterateur, declared that ‘Spring, River, Flowers, Moon, Night’ was ‘the poem of all poems, a crowning summit’ 詩中的詩，頂峰上的頂峰.

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Born in Beiping 北平 in 1931 and son of the noted historian Owen Lattimore, David Lattimore (1931-2024) enjoyed a long career as a scholar, teacher, poet and translator. See also:

Robert Barnett, China, Tibet and the Dynamics of Inland Borders, China Heritage Quarterly, no.27 (September 2011)

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Intersecting with Eternity is a mini-anthology of literary and artistic works, both past and present, that form part of the unbroken stream of human awareness and poetic self-reflection. Intersecting with Eternity is a companion series to The Tower of Reading and an extension of The Other China section of China Heritage.

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
28 May 2026

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春江花月夜

张若虛

Spring river tidal water
running level with the sea

on the sea the bright moon
rising with the tide

rolling tossing
down its waves a million miles

where spring river
do you lack for moonlight

春江潮水連海平，海上明月共潮生。
灧灧隨波千萬里，何處春江無月明。

The river flows twists turns
around the scented park lands

moonlight sleeting everywhere
on blooming groves

through the void flowing frost
flies unseen

white sand of the islets
indistinguishable

江流宛轉繞芳甸，月照花林皆似霰。
空里流霜不覺飛，汀上白沙看不見。

River sky one color
without a spot of dust.

glittering amid the void
the bright moon’s wheel

on these banks what people
first saw the moon

river moon in what year
did you first shine on men

江天一色無纖塵，皎皎空中孤月輪。
江畔何人初見月，江月何年初照人。

Life of man age on age
unexhausted

river moon year by year
looking at each other

who knows what person
the moon in the river waits for

all you see the long stream
ushering its waters

人生代代無窮已，江月年年望相似。
不知江月待何人，但見長江送流水。

White cloud a single swath
bound far away

maples green upon the bank
unquenched sorrow

tonight where is the household
of the man in the little boat

what place does she think of
in the moonlit lodge

白雲一片去悠悠，青楓浦上不勝愁。
誰家今夜扁舟子，何處相思明月樓。

Piteously above the lodge
the moon wavers wanders

shining back on the lonely one
the make-up mirror-stand

blinds of the jade door
she twists but does not go

wash-pounding on the stone
though brushed away returns

可憐樓上月徘徊，應照離人妝鏡台。
玉戶簾中卷不去，搗衣砧上拂還來。

This is the hour to gaze afar
hearing nothing

wishing to follow the moon-glow
to flow — to shine on you

wild geese far flying
cannot go beyond the light

fish dragons churning
the depths ripple the surface

此時相望不相聞，願逐月華流照君。
鴻雁長飛光不度，魚龍潛躍水成文。

Last night by the idle pool
she dreamt of falling flowers

she grieves for him at mid-spring
who does not come home

river waters wash away
what’s left of spring

river pool the falling moon
slanting westward

昨夜閒潭夢落花，可憐春半不還家。
江水流春去欲盡，江潭落月復西斜。

Slant moon deep deep
in sea-mist hidden

from Jieshi to Xiaoxiang
a boundless road

who knows what people
come home by moonlight

the moonset shakes our feelings
as it fills the river trees.

斜月沈沈藏海霧，碣石瀟湘無限路。
不知乘月幾人歸，落月搖情滿江樹。

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Source:

Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations, Volume I: From Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty, John Minford and Joseph M. Lau, eds, New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, pp.820-823

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