Tang poem · five-character quatrain唐诗 · 五言绝句

xīn新jià嫁niáng娘cí词sān三shǒu首·qí其sān三

wáng王jiàn建Wang Jian · Tang唐

The New Bride (Third of Three)

sān三rì日rù入chú厨xià下

xǐ洗shǒu手zuò作gēng羹tāng汤

wèi未ān谙gū姑shí食xìng性

xiān先qiǎn遣xiǎo小gū姑cháng尝

Underlined words have notes: tap one. The Pinyin button below shows or hides all pinyin. 一 and 不 are marked with the tone you actually say.字下有虚线的，点开有注释。下方的“拼音”按钮可以显示或隐藏全部拼音。“一”“不”标的是实际读出来的变调。

Line by line逐句翻译

三日入厨下On the third day after the wedding, the bride goes into the kitchen.结婚后第三天，新媳妇走进厨房。
洗手作羹汤She washes her hands and makes soup.洗干净手，做起汤和菜来。
未谙姑食性She does not yet know what her mother-in-law likes to eat.她还不知道婆婆喜欢什么口味。
先遣小姑尝So she first asks her husband's little sister to taste it.就先请小姑子尝一尝。

Words字词注释

三日sān rì: sān rì: the third day after the wedding. By old custom, on the third day a new bride went into the kitchen and cooked for her husband's parents.三日：结婚后的第三天。古时候的风俗，新媳妇过门第三天要下厨房做饭，给公公婆婆吃。
厨下chú xià: chú xià: in the kitchen.厨下：厨房里。
作羹汤zuò gēng tāng: zuò gēng tāng: to make soup and dishes. Gēng is a thick soup.作羹汤：做汤做菜。羹，带汁的浓汤。
未谙wèi ān: wèi ān: not yet familiar with. Ān means to know well.未谙：还不熟悉、不了解。谙，熟悉。
姑gū: gū: here it means the mother-in-law, the husband's mother.姑：这里指婆婆，就是丈夫的妈妈。
食性shí xìng: shí xìng: taste in food, whether someone likes it salty or mild.食性：吃东西的口味，喜欢咸还是淡。
遣qiǎn: qiǎn: to send, to ask someone to do something.遣：让，派。
小姑xiǎo gū: xiǎo gū: the husband's younger sister.小姑：丈夫的妹妹。

Background创作背景

Wang Jian wrote three poems called "The New Bride". This is the third one. It is in the famous collection Three Hundred Tang Poems under the title "The New Bride". In old times, a married woman had to serve her husband's parents well in her new home. Cooking on the third day after the wedding was an important test. The poet picks this one small scene and shows the bride being nervous but clever. We no longer know when it was written.

王建写了三首《新嫁娘词》，这是第三首，《唐诗三百首》里收了它，题作《新嫁娘》。古时候女子出嫁后，要在新家里好好侍奉公公婆婆。结婚第三天下厨做饭，是一次重要的“考试”。诗人抓住这一个小场面，写出新媳妇又紧张又聪明的样子。写作年月已经不清楚了。

The poet作者

Wang Jian was a Tang poet. Sources differ on when he was born and died; he lived roughly from the late eighth to the early ninth century. He held a few small posts and was never rich. He was good at yuefu, a kind of song-like poem about ordinary people's lives. He and his friend Zhang Ji were famous together for these songs. His poems often show the small daily things of common people's lives, and this is one of them.

王建，唐代诗人，生卒年说法不一，大约生活在八世纪后半到九世纪前期。他做过一些小官，生活不富裕。他很会写乐府诗（一种可以唱、写普通人生活的诗），和好朋友张籍齐名，人称“张王乐府”。他的诗常写老百姓的日常小事，这首就是一例。

The mood意境

This poem is like a tiny story. In twenty characters it has a person, actions, and a hidden thought. On her third day, the new bride goes into the kitchen and first washes her hands, so we know she is careful and proper. But she is new here. She does not know if her mother-in-law likes food salty or mild, and she is afraid of getting it wrong. So she has a smart idea: let the husband's little sister taste first. The sister has lived with her mother for years, so her taste is the closest. The poem never says the bride is clever or nervous, yet we can feel both. Picture it: by the stove, the bride holds a small bowl of soup and watches the girl a little anxiously, waiting to hear that it tastes good. Some readers also see in it a new official carefully learning what his boss likes.

这首诗像一个小故事，二十个字就有人物、有动作、有心思。新媳妇第三天进厨房，先“洗手”，可见她认真又规矩。可是她刚来，不知道婆婆爱吃咸还是爱吃淡，做不好怕被挑剔。她想了个好办法：先让小姑子尝。小姑子和婆婆一起生活了很多年，口味最像婆婆。诗里没有一个字说她聪明、说她紧张，我们却都能感觉到。读的时候可以想象：灶台边，新媳妇端着一小碗汤，有点不安地看着小姑子，等她说“好喝”。有人还说，这首诗也像刚做官的人，小心地摸清上司的心思。