English中文
Pusa Man: All Say Jiangnan Is Fair
人人尽说江南好，
游人只合江南老。
春水碧于天，
画船听雨眠。
Everyone says Jiangnan is good; a traveler should rightly grow old there. Its spring water is bluer than the sky; in a painted boat one listens to the rain and sleeps.
垆边人似月，
皓腕凝霜雪。
未老莫还乡，
还乡须断肠。
The girl beside the wine-jars is fair as the moon; her white wrists are congealed frost and snow. Do not go home while you are still young — to go home would surely break your heart.
Reading notes
垆 evokes a wine shop. 霜雪 also appears as 双雪; this page retains 霜雪 and the English follows it. Jiangnan has geographical readings as well as interpretations connected with Shu; the English retains Jiangnan without assigning a specific place of composition. 还乡 is read huán xiāng.