Home › Poems › On Behalf of a White-Haired Old Man
Dài Bēi Bái Tóu WēngOn Behalf of a White-Haired Old Man 代悲白头翁
Flowers return each year; people do not.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
洛阳城东桃李花
luò yáng chéng dōng táo lǐ huā
飞来飞去落谁家
fēi lái fēi qù luò shuí jiā
洛阳女儿惜颜色
luò yáng nǚ ér xī yán sè
行逢落花长叹息
xíng féng luò huā cháng tàn xī
……
古人无复洛城东
gǔ rén wú fù luò chéng dōng
今人还对落花风
jīn rén hái duì luò huā fēng
年年岁岁花相似
nián nián suì suì huā xiāng sì
岁岁年年人不同
suì suì nián nián rén bù tóng
Simplified characters; traditional title: 代悲白頭翁. This is a long poem; only the best-known lines are shown, and “……” marks omitted passages.
English translation
East of the city of Luoyang, peach and plum blossoms
fly here and there — into whose yard will they fall?
The girls of Luoyang cherish their beauty;
meeting the falling petals, they heave a long sigh.
(…)
The people of old no longer stand east of Luoyang;
the people of today still face the wind that scatters blossoms.
Year after year, the flowers look the same;
year after year, the people are not the same.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The poem begins with young women mourning falling blossoms and moves (in the omitted middle) to an old man who was once young and handsome. The famous couplet uses a mirror structure — 年年岁岁 / 岁岁年年 — so the words repeat while the meaning changes: nature cycles, human life passes. It is one of the most quoted expressions of impermanence in Chinese.
Background
A long Early Tang ballad by Liu Xiyi. Its famous couplet was said to be so admired that his uncle Song Zhiwen wanted it for himself. Only the opening and the most famous lines are shown.
Key words
- 桃李 táo lǐ
- peach and plum
- 颜色 yán sè
- looks, beauty
- 年年岁岁 nián nián suì suì
- year after year
About the poet: Liu Xiyi
Liu Xiyi was a young Early Tang poet who died before thirty. Later anecdotes claim he was murdered by his uncle Song Zhiwen, who coveted a famous couplet. Only a few dozen of his poems survive.
Lifetime: c. 651–679. Other famous works: On Behalf of a White-Haired Old Man (代悲白头翁).