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大家好！Today, we’ll be discussing one of the most famous Chinese poems, “靜夜思,” translated to “Quiet Night Thoughts” in English. This poem was written by Li Bai (李白) during the Tang Dynasty. The theme of this poem is nostalgia, and the poem involves a person who is longing for his hometown at night.
Here’s a bit of history:
Li Bai was a Confucian scholar who resided far from his home village in ancient China to fulfill his duties to the Emperor. Because of this, he was not able to meet his family often. According to Confucian values, filial piety is extremely important; however, fulfilling duties to the Emperor was also very important. By writing this poem, Li Bai could fulfill duties to the Emperor, as well as show filial piety, in the form of longing to be together with his family.
Here are the characters, pinyin, and translation for the poem!
Poem (诗 Shī):
靜夜思 by 李白
床前明月光
疑是地上霜
举头望明月
低头思故乡
Pinyin (拼音 Pīnyīn):
Jìng Yè Sī by Lǐbái
Chuáng qián míng yuè guāng
Yí shì dì shàng shuāng
Jǔ tóu wàng míng yuè
Dītóu sī gùxiāng
Translation (翻译 Fānyì):
Quiet Night Thinking/ Contemplation by Li Bai
There is moonlight shining before my bed,
I suspect that there is frost on the ground,
Raising my head, I gaze at the moonlight,
Lowering my head, I think of my home village.
Poet Li Bai
It’s a wonder how these few characters can express such deep emotion!
Fun fact! This poem is often representative of the Mid-Autumn Festival aka Mooncake Festival (this year on September 27th on our calendar AKA August 8th on the Chinese calendar), during which families come together and reunite, since it expresses longing to be back together with family.
This poem follows the rhyme scheme of AABA, in which the first, second, and last lines of the quatrain rhyme, while the third one does not. This poem is also is one of the myriad Chinese poems that has five characters in each of the four lines.
(In some versions of this poem, one may see 看月光 instead of 明月光.)
(看月光 (Kàn yuèguāng)= gazing at the moonlight)
I hope that you enjoyed my first back-to-school post on TDC! Stay tuned for more exciting posts!
再见！下个星期见！
Great article. I really enjoyed the post.
这篇文章刚好应了中秋节的景，每年到中秋节时每个人在欣赏月亮时，都会不由自主的吟上这首诗。尤其是在海外的游子，更加想念远在家乡的亲人！我想作者一定是一位非常贴心和有感情的文艺青年！
月是故乡明，李白的这首诗运用物象的手法巧妙地将皎洁的明月与思念家乡的个人情感联系在了起来。中秋之际，离家万里，抬头望见那轮圆月也不免低头便想到故乡。
I’ve had nightmares about poems, ever since attending Chinese classes in China. I remember really clearly when I was in 1st grade, when my teacher made us memorize a poem each week. She made every single student take turns reciting the poems in front of the class. As expected I failed every week. I would cry night after night, wanting to move back to the states. Thank God, not long after my parents brought me out of that hell hole. This article brought back good, old memories. Thanks guys.