english / pilot guides
Read the poem, then read the world around it.
A small, carefully edited English layer for Chinese classical poetry. Each guide keeps the original text in view and adds a literal gloss, a natural translation, context, imagery, and vocabulary.
Ten poems to read slowly.
Quiet Night Thought
A small room, a patch of moonlight, and one remembered home. Li Bai turns an ordinary night into a poem about distance and belonging.
Read the guideLonging
Wang Wei makes a red bean carry the weight of remembrance. The poem is brief, but its invitation to gather the beans turns a plant into a token exchanged across distance.
Read the guideAutumn Evening in the Mountains
After rain, a mountain becomes newly clear. Wang Wei layers moonlight, running water, voices, and movement into a scene that feels quiet without being empty.
Read the guideSpring Dawn
The speaker wakes into spring through sound. Birds, wind, rain, and fallen flowers make the night vivid even though the poem begins at the quiet moment of waking.
Read the guideClimbing the Stork Tower
A setting sun, a river running to the sea, and one more step upward. The poem makes a physical act of climbing into a lesson about widening one’s view.
Read the guideRiver Snow
The world is emptied of birds and people until only one fisherman remains. Liu Zongyuan uses extreme stillness to make solitude feel vast rather than merely private.
Read the guideNight Mooring by Maple Bridge
A traveller cannot sleep beside a river. Moonset, crows, frost, maples, and a temple bell gather into one of classical poetry’s most recognizable night scenes.
Read the guideMooring at Qinhuai
The Qinhuai River is beautiful at night, but the song drifting from the far bank carries a memory of political loss. Du Mu lets atmosphere and historical judgment occupy the same scene.
Read the guideBring in the Wine
Li Bai answers the brevity of life with overflowing language, wine, music, and appetite. The poem is celebratory on the surface, but its urgency also reveals anxiety about time and recognition.
Read the guidePrelude to Water Melody: How Long Has the Bright Moon Been There?
On a moonlit night, Su Shi asks questions that move between heaven and earth. The poem begins with uncertainty and ends with a wish that distance cannot defeat.
Read the guide