我住长江尾

我住長江尾

wǒzhùchángjiāngwěi

phrase

Meanings

1 I live at the tail of the Long River
2 (fig.) (of lovers) separated by the whole length of the Yangtze — distance but shared water
3 (lit.) I live Long-River's tail

Characters

tail / end (of river = downstream)

Examples

她在北京，我在广州，真是我住长江尾，君住长江头。

Tā zài Běijīng, wǒ zài Guǎngzhōu, zhēn shì wǒ zhù cháng jiāng wěi, jūn zhù cháng jiāng tóu.

She's in Beijing, I'm in Guangzhou — truly 'I live at the tail of the Yangtze, you at its head.'

异地恋让人想起我住长江尾的诗句。

Yìdì liàn ràng rén xiǎngqǐ wǒ zhù cháng jiāng wěi de shījù.

Long-distance love makes one think of the line 'I live at the tail of the Yangtze.'

Tips

history

From 李之仪《卜算子·我住长江头》(Li Zhiyi, Northern Song, ca. 1100). Opening: 我住长江头，君住长江尾。日日思君不见君，共饮长江水 (I live at the head of the Long River; you live at its tail. Day after day I long for you but cannot see you — yet we drink the same Yangtze water). The batch line flips the pronoun ('I live at the tail') as the female lover's voice, or is quoted by someone downstream. The ci is one of the most quoted love poems in Chinese.

usage

The paired halves 长江头 (upstream, 头) and 长江尾 (downstream, 尾) are geographically real: 头 = Sichuan/Yunnan sources; 尾 = Jiangsu/Shanghai. Modern speakers swap pronouns freely depending on who's speaking. Always cited with 共饮长江水 (we drink the same river).

Stroke Order

我 wǒ

住 zhù

长 cháng

江 jiāng

尾 wěi