唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
晚桃花
Late Peach Blossoms
一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时。
非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知。
寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟。
春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝。
hidden by bamboo and the shade of pines, it blooms late.
Were it not for the slanting sun, there were no way to see it;
were I not an idle man, how could I have known it?
Timber grown on cold ground is easily cast aside,
a daughter raised in a poor house is married off late.
Now spring deepens and it is about to fall - who will cherish it?
Vice Minister Bai comes and breaks off a single sprig.
Meaning
Bai Juyi turns a chance glimpse of a late-blooming peach tree into a parable for unrecognized talent. Hidden by bamboo and pines and visible only in the slanting sun, the blossom is noticed only by an idle man - just as ability grown in poor circumstances is easily overlooked and a poor family's daughter is married late. The poet ends by plucking a sprig himself, half-admiring the flower and half-consoling his own unrecognized worth.
一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时。非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知。寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟。春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] A single tree of red peaches bends over the pool; screened by bamboo and the shade of pines, it blooms only late. Without the slanting evening sun one could never see it; without a leisured man, who could ever know it? Timber from cold ground is readily discarded, and a poor family's daughter marries late. Now, deep in spring, the blossoms are about to fall: who will cherish them? Vice Minister Bai comes and breaks off a single sprig. [Structure] The eight lines move from scene to parable to self-portrait. The first couplet sets the late, hidden blossom; the second explains why it goes unseen; the third widens the image into social analogies; the fourth brings the poet himself on stage as the flower's only admirer. [Imagery] The peach blossom is never merely described: it is a stand-in for the talented man passed over by the world. The slanting sun and the idle man form a neat chain - light reveals, leisure perceives - so the poem quietly argues that worth depends on fortunate circumstance. The closing gesture of plucking a sprig is tender and self-mocking: the one who values the flower is a semi-retired official, himself a late bloomer past his season.
【白话串讲】 白居易写《晚桃花》：“一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时”——“非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知”——“寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟”——“春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝”——他写晚桃花——不是闲人岂得知。 【意象与手法】 “一树红桃亚拂池、竹遮松荫晚开时”写红桃晚开；“非因斜日无由见、不是闲人岂得知”写非闲人岂得知；“寒地生材遗挍易、贫家养女嫁常迟”写寒地生材；结以“春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝”写白侍郎折一枝。婉转咏桃。 【情感与主旨】 白居易写晚桃花之作，以晚桃写才士被遗、叹身世之慨，是咏物诗中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知”写晚桃难遇赏；“寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟”以寒地生材写身世。
Background
Bai Juyi (772-846), courtesy name Letian, was one of the Mid-Tang's most prolific and popular poets, famous for his plain, direct style and his social conscience. In the poem he calls himself 'Vice Minister Bai' (Bai Shilang), a titular post he held late in life while living in semi-retirement at Luoyang. Written in the yongwu (poetry on things) tradition, the poem likely dates from these later years, when the poet, long aware of how slowly his own worth had been recognized, found in a late peach blossom a perfect emblem of talent that opens out of season.
《晚桃花》为唐代诗人白居易所作诗。白居易（772—846），字乐天，号香山居士，下邽人，唐代诗人。此诗写咏物桃花，为咏晚桃之作。诗中「一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时」写一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时；「非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知」写非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知；「寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟」写寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟；「春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝」写春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝。白居易此诗以咏物桃花、白侍郎来折一枝写其咏桃之情，婉转咏桃，是白居易诗中的名篇。此篇《晚桃花》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。此篇《晚桃花》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。
Art
The poem's craft lies in its double movement. The first four lines describe a real scene with careful economy: 'low over the pool' gives the tree its posture, 'bamboo and pine-shade' explains its lateness, and the second couplet turns description into a little syllogism - no slanting sun, no sight; no idle man, no knowledge. The third couplet then lifts the blossom into two parallel social analogies (cold-ground timber, poor-family daughter) that give the yongwu poem its allegorical charge without any explicit statement of grievance. The closing couplet is the boldest stroke: the poet enters his own poem, and the act of breaking a sprig is simultaneously an appreciation of beauty, an act of rescue, and a wry self-portrait of a man who values what the world neglects. Regulated seven-character verse lets him carry all this in four balanced couplets.
此诗艺术上以「婉转咏桃、以桃写情」见长。全诗共八句四联，由一树红桃亚拂池而非因斜日无由见而寒地生材遗挍易。起「一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时」写一树红桃亚拂池：一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时；「非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知」写非因斜日无由见：非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知；「寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟」写寒地生材遗挍易：寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟；结「春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝」写白侍郎来折一枝：春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝。全诗以桃写情，由一树红桃亚拂池而白侍郎来折一枝，婉转咏桃，是白居易诗中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。
Allusions
The poem works through analogy rather than learned allusion. Cold ground and a poor family's daughter both encode the late-Tang reality of talent stranded by circumstance: fine timber grows in harsh places and is passed over by builders; a worthy girl in a poor household is married late. The self-reference 'Bai Shilang' (Vice Minister Bai) is the poem's only historical self-allusion - Bai Juyi really did hold the rank of shilang. Earlier peach imagery, from Tao Yuanming's Peach Blossom Spring to the long tradition of spring blossoms as emblems of beauty and transience, stands behind the image without being named, so the flower quietly carries a whole tradition of unnoticed virtue.
诗中「一树红桃亚拂池竹遮松荫晚开时」「非因斜日无由见不是闲人岂得知」「寒地生材遗挍易贫家养女嫁常迟」「春深欲落谁怜惜白侍郎来折一枝」等语，皆含典故故实。「一树红桃亚拂池竹遮松荫晚开时」写一树红桃亚拂池竹遮松荫晚开时；「非因斜日无由见不是闲人岂得知」写非因斜日无由见不是闲人岂得知；「寒地生材遗挍易贫家养女嫁常迟」写寒地生材遗挍易贫家养女嫁常迟；「春深欲落谁怜惜白侍郎来折一枝」写春深欲落谁怜惜白侍郎来折一枝。诗人以红桃、斜日等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把咏物桃花之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。
Commentary
The couplet 'Were it not for the slanting sun, there were no way to see it; were I not an idle man, how could I have known it?' has been a favorite examination couplet for centuries, praised for turning a small observation into a statement about opportunity and recognition. Critics admire the poem's indirect grace: the complaint of an overlooked talent never becomes a grievance, because the poet displaces it onto a flower and ends with a light, self-deprecating gesture. The poem is regularly anthologized among Bai Juyi's shorter works and is considered one of his most successful yongwu pieces, valued precisely for the ease with which a small scene carries a whole life's disappointment.
这首《晚桃花》，是白居易写咏物桃花之作，写一树红桃亚拂池、非因斜日无由见、寒地生材遗挍易、白侍郎来折一枝之情，婉转咏桃。起「一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时」——一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时。写一树红桃亚拂池：一树红桃亚拂池、竹遮松荫晚开时——亚拂池、晚开时；「非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知」——非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知。写非因斜日无由见：非因斜日无由见、不是闲人岂得知——无由见、岂得知；「寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟」——寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟。写寒地生材遗挍易：寒地生材遗挍易、贫家养女嫁常迟——遗挍易、嫁常迟；结「春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝」——春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝。写白侍郎来折一枝：春深欲落谁怜惜、白侍郎来折一枝——谁怜惜、折一枝。这「春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝」，是全诗之结：以白侍郎来折一枝写其咏桃。全诗婉转咏桃，以桃写情，正是白居易诗中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时。
One tree of red peaches bends low over the pool, / hidden by bamboo and the shade of pines, it blooms late.
一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时。
A whole tree of red peach bends and brushes the pool; screened by bamboo, shaded by pines, it blooms late in the season.
起句写一树红桃亚拂池，起笔即见其红桃。「一树红桃亚拂池」写一树红桃亚拂池，「一树红桃」写一树红桃、「亚拂池」写亚拂池；「竹遮松荫晚开时」写竹遮松荫晚开时，「竹遮松荫」写竹遮松荫、「晚开时」写晚开时。一句写一树红桃亚拂池竹遮松荫晚开时，以一树红桃亚拂池写亚拂池、以竹遮松荫晚开时写晚开时，写尽一树红桃亚拂池、竹遮松荫晚开时之情。以桃起兴，婉转而咏桃，是「以桃起兴」的妙笔。
The opening writes the red peach bending to the pool, the theme struck at once. A whole tree of red peach bends and brushes the pool: the red boughs leaning down to trail the water. Screened by bamboo, shaded by pines, it blooms late: hidden among bamboo, in the pines' shade, opening after the season. One line writes the bending red peach, the other the bamboo, pines, and late bloom - Bai Juyi's starting point for the late peach: boughs brushing the pool, hidden and late. The late-opening is not neglected but sheltered; the peach blooms when others have faded, and this very lateness sets up the poem's quiet argument about talent delayed by circumstance.
非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知。
Were it not for the slanting sun, there were no way to see it; / were I not an idle man, how could I have known it?
非因斜日无由见，不是闲人岂得知。
Were it not for the slanting sun, no one would see it; were I not an idle man, who would know of it?
此句写非因斜日无由见，是全诗写斜日之态的关键。「非因斜日无由见」写非因斜日无由见，「非因斜日」写非因斜日、「无由见」写无由见；「不是闲人岂得知」写不是闲人岂得知，「不是闲人」写不是闲人、「岂得知」写岂得知。一句写非因斜日无由见不是闲人岂得知，以非因斜日无由见写无由见、以不是闲人岂得知写岂得知，写尽非因斜日无由见、不是闲人岂得知之情。以日写情，婉转而咏桃，是「以日写情」的点睛之笔。
The second couplet writes that but for the slanting sun, none would see it, the key to the poem's reflection. Were it not for the slanting sun, no one would see it: in the slanting light the hidden flowers glow as if lit from within. Were I not an idle man, who would know of it: only a wanderer with time to spare would notice such a blossom. One line writes the accidental seeing through slanting sun, the other the knowing only through leisure - the poem's turning point: the late peach is not seen by the busy world; it is discovered only by an idle eye in slanting light. The couplet glides from scenery into the personal, preparing the larger reflection on late-blooming worth below.
寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟。
Timber grown on cold ground is easily cast aside, / a daughter raised in a poor house is married off late.
寒地生材遗挍易，贫家养女嫁常迟。
Talents grown in cold ground are easily overlooked; daughters raised in poor homes are often married late.
此句写寒地生材遗挍易，是全诗写寒地之态的关键。「寒地生材遗挍易」写寒地生材遗挍易，「寒地生材」写寒地生材、「遗挍易」写遗挍易；「贫家养女嫁常迟」写贫家养女嫁常迟，「贫家养女」写贫家养女、「嫁常迟」写嫁常迟。一句写寒地生材遗挍易贫家养女嫁常迟，以寒地生材遗挍易写遗挍易、以贫家养女嫁常迟写嫁常迟，写尽寒地生材遗挍易、贫家养女嫁常迟之情。以地写情，婉转而咏桃，是「以地写情」的点睛之笔。
The third couplet writes that talents grown in cold ground are easily overlooked, the poem's argument. Talents grown in cold ground are easily overlooked: men of ability reared in hardship are cast aside with ease. Daughters raised in poor homes are often married late: a poor family's daughters wait long for a match. One line writes cold ground and overlooked talent, the other poor home and late marriage - the poem's central analogy: the late peach is like cold-ground talent and poor-family daughters - precious, yet slow to be recognized. The parallel is plain but heartfelt: Bai Juyi has watched many a worthy flower unseen; the couplet converts the hidden blossom into a human parable, tender rather than bitter.
春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝。
Now spring deepens and it is about to fall - who will cherish it? / Vice Minister Bai comes and breaks off a single sprig.
春深欲落谁怜惜，白侍郎来折一枝。
Spring is deep and the blossoms near falling - who cares for them? Vice-minister Bai comes to pluck one branch.
结句写白侍郎来折一枝，是全诗立意的落点。「春深欲落谁怜惜」写春深欲落谁怜惜，「春深欲落」写春深欲落、「谁怜惜」写谁怜惜；「白侍郎来折一枝」写白侍郎来折一枝，「白侍郎」写白侍郎、「来折一枝」写折一枝。一句写春深欲落谁怜惜白侍郎来折一枝，以春深欲落谁怜惜写谁怜惜、以白侍郎来折一枝写折一枝，写尽春深欲落谁怜惜、白侍郎来折一枝之情。以枝写情，婉转而咏桃，是全诗最动人处，也是「以枝写情」的点睛之笔。
The closing resolves the poem in Vice-minister Bai plucking a branch. Spring is deep and the blossoms near falling - who cares for them: late spring, petals about to fall, who will spare them a thought? Vice-minister Bai comes to pluck one branch: the poet himself arrives to break off a sprig. One line writes the question who would pity the fading flower, the other the coming to pluck - the poem's landing: the fading late peach, unloved by the world, is honored at last by one visitor. The self-plucking is both modest and proud: he knows the beauty others miss; one branch broken carries more tenderness than a garden full. The closing turns the poem's gentle melancholy into a small, warm act - the latest bloom, claimed at the last moment.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Su Shi's lyric 'Men have sorrow and joy, parting and reunion; the moon has its dark and clear, its waxing and waning' accepts imperfection with open-hearted philosophy, while Bai Juyi's 'Late Peach Blossoms' accepts it through a flower that opens and falls out of season. Su reconciles by rising above the world; Bai consoles himself inside a small scene. Read together they show two ways of writing consolation: the philosopher's serenity and the poet's tender self-mockery.
苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全」，写咏桃感怀、婉转旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；白居易《晚桃花》则以「一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时」「白侍郎来折一枝」写晚开时、折一枝。两诗同写咏桃感怀、婉转旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写一树红桃亚拂池竹遮松荫晚开时、以红桃写咏物；一为苏轼之旷达、一为白居易之婉转，并读正可见诗写「咏桃感怀」的两种笔法，皆于咏桃之中见婉转。
八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Eight Beats of Ganzhou Song (Basheng Ganzhou) 柳永 · 同写桃下凝望、婉转清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写一树红桃亚拂池竹遮松荫晚开时，皆于桃下之中见凝望 Both open with a gaze upon a broad scene that turns inward to personal feeling.Liu Yong begins 'Facing the drizzling evening rain that showers the sky over the river, a washing of clear autumn' and slides from landscape into homesickness, while Bai Juyi begins with a single peach tree and slides into the fate of unrecognized talent. One writes the wanderer's wide, clear gaze; the other writes the retired official's narrow, knowing one - both are masters of turning outer scenes into inner weather.
柳永《八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天》「对潇潇暮雨洒江天，一番洗清秋」，写桃下凝望、婉转清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；白居易《晚桃花》则以「一树红桃亚拂池，竹遮松荫晚开时」「非因斜日无由见」写晚开时、无由见。两诗同写桃下凝望、婉转清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写一树红桃亚拂池竹遮松荫晚开时、以红桃写咏物；一为柳永之清丽、一为白居易之婉转，并读正可见诗写「桃下凝望」的两种笔法，皆于桃下之中见凝望。