POEM
静夜思Jìng Yè SīQuiet Night Thoughts
- Dynasty
- Tang
- Author
- 李白 Lǐ Bái (Li Bai)
- Genre
- 五言绝句
- Lines
- 4
- Era
- c. 8th century
THE POEM — LINE BY LINE
Tap a line for word-by-word gloss.
#1床前明月光Chuáng qián míng yuè guāngBright moonlight falls before my bed.word by word
#2疑是地上霜Yí shì dì shàng shuāngSo white that I take it for frost on the ground.word by word
#3举头望明月Jǔ tóu wàng míng yuèI raise my head and gaze at the bright moon.word by word
#4低头思故乡Dī tóu sī gù xiāngI lower my head and think of my hometown.word by word
POEM IN PLAIN ENGLISH
A plain-English guide, not a literary translationOn a quiet night, bright moonlight falls before the poet's bed, so white that for a moment he takes it for frost on the ground. He lifts his head to look at the moon, then lowers it — and thoughts of home well up. In four short lines Li Bai catches the oldest feeling of travel: a wanderer and his family, far apart, watching the same moon. This is a plain-English guide, not a literary translation.
BACKGROUND & IMAGERY
Li Bai (701-762) is one of the two giants of Tang poetry, alongside Du Fu. 静夜思 is often the first classical poem Chinese children memorize, and its moon is the standard image of homesickness in Chinese poetry: on a journey, the moon is the one thing the poet and his family can see at the same time. The text given here is the standard received version (通行本); an older manuscript version reads 牀前看月光 / 举头望山月.
HISTORIC TRANSLATION
I wake, and moonbeams play around my bed,
Glittering like hoar-frost to my wandering eyes;
Up towards the glorious moon I raise my head,
Then lay me down—and thoughts of home arise.
Herbert Giles, Chinese Poetry in English Verse (1898)
Public domain (translator died 1935; first published 1898, before the 1929 US safety line).
TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-15
Sources
- 《唐诗三百首》通行本（中华书局点校本）
- 本站飞花令语料 feihualing.db（poem 396991） — 文本以通行本为准，库本仅行级参考；库中同题另存明版异文（'牀前看月光/举头望山月'，verseIds 2941621-2941624），不予采用
- Herbert Giles, Chinese Poetry in English Verse (1898) — 公版译本，逐条登记于 license-ledger-poetry.json
- Original English paraphrase & gloss — 本站原创学习释义，非文学译本（plain-English guide, not a literary translation）
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