一yī江jiāng春chūn水shuǐ向xiàng東dōng流liú

What does 一江春水向東流 (yī jiāng chūn shuǐ xiàng dōng liú) mean?

一江春水向東流 (yī jiāng chūn shuǐ xiàng dōng liú) is a line of classical verse (shīcí 詩詞). Word for word it reads "A river of spring water flows eastward." In use it means: Time, like the river, flows in one direction and cannot be reversed. Often expresses deep sorrow over irretrievable loss or the passage of a golden era. You reach for it when you want that idea in one breath, and the Water note it carries is why we hand it to those born in the Year of the Snake.

Literally: "A river of spring water flows eastward.."

The reading

The river does not look back over its shoulder. Spring fills it with new water, but even new water only knows one direction. Every regret you float on its surface drifts further away, not closer. The east swallows everything the west once held, and no dam can hold a season in place.

What kind of proverb it is

• Typeshīcí 詩詞
• FocusLooks back
• Element水 Water
• Zodiac tie蛇 Year of the Snake

Source Li Yu (李煜), last emperor of Southern Tang, ci poem Yu Meiren (虞美人).

Sits beside

Keep reading

Return to the Proverb Pond to draw another of the eighty-seven, or hear one read aloud. Read the rest of its chapter in The Way of Water, or follow the years these lines belong to: Year of the Snake, Year of the Rat, and Year of the Ox.