In the dusk, the vast, hazy mountains make the road seem distant; in the cold, the humble thatched hut before me looks poorer still. Suddenly a dog barks beside the brushwood gate: someone has come home through the snowy night.

芙蓉山: Mount Furong; its precise location is disputed. 苍山: mountains dark blue-green in the gathering dusk. 白屋: an unadorned thatched cottage, indicating a poor household.

柴门: a simple courtyard gate woven from brushwood. 夜归人: someone returning at night. Interpretations have long differed over whether this is the host returning home or the poet arriving to seek lodging; the translation leaves room for the narrative sense of “someone returning.”

Reading guide: This five-character quatrain records sights and sounds encountered while seeking lodging at a mountain home at dusk in wind and snow. The title establishes the traveler's circumstances, while the poem itself leaves only fragments of mountains, a house, a dog's bark, and a returning figure, inviting readers to fill in the night's stay themselves.

The first two lines depict distant scenery and nearby houses; “远” (far) and “贫” (poor) reveal both the hardship of travel and the simplicity of the household. The last two lines shift from sight to sound: a dog's barking comes first, and the returning person is then perceived.

The poem never directly states the comfort of finding shelter, yet the space inside and outside the brushwood gate creates a contrast between cold and human life. The figures’ unspecified identities also make the picture intriguing; it need not be forced into one definitive scene.