Home › Poems › Impromptu (Youth Ages Easily)
Ǒu ChéngImpromptu (Youth Ages Easily) 偶成
A famous warning about time and study.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
少年易老学难成
shào nián yì lǎo xué nán chéng
一寸光阴不可轻
yī cùn guāng yīn bù kě qīng
未觉池塘春草梦
wèi jué chí táng chūn cǎo mèng
阶前梧叶已秋声
jiē qián wú yè yǐ qiū shēng
Simplified characters; traditional title: 偶成.
Note on the text: Authorship is disputed; the poem is traditionally attributed to Zhu Xi.
English translation
Youth ages easily; learning is hard to complete.
Do not treat lightly even an inch of time.
Before you wake from dreams of spring grass by the pond,
Paulownia leaves by the steps already sound of autumn.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The first couplet is a direct maxim; the second makes it vivid. The "dream of spring grass" recalls a famous line by Xie Lingyun and stands for youthful leisure. Before you wake from it, the rustle of falling paulownia leaves announces autumn — that is, old age. The leap from spring to autumn in a single line enacts how quickly time passes.
Background
Long attributed to the philosopher Zhu Xi and taught that way in Japan, but modern scholars doubt the attribution; it may be by a Japanese Zen monk of the Muromachi period. It is little known in China.
Key words
- 光阴 guāng yīn
- time ("light and shade")
- 池塘春草 chí táng chūn cǎo
- spring grass by the pond, an image of youth
- 梧叶 wú yè
- paulownia (wutong) leaves
About the poet: Zhu Xi
Zhu Xi was the most influential Neo-Confucian philosopher of later imperial China; his commentaries on the Four Books became the basis of the civil-service examinations. He also wrote poems that express philosophical ideas through everyday images.
Lifetime: 1130–1200. Other famous works: Thoughts on Reading (观书有感); Impromptu (Youth Ages Easily) (偶成); Thoughts on Reading II (观书有感 其二); A Spring Day (春日).