Chinese Poem: "Thinking on a Quiet Night" 靜夜思 | Learn Chinese Now

床前明月光,一世地上霜, 举头望明月,低头思故乡。 Hey everyone, today we're going to be talking about Chinese Tang Dynasty poetry, and I'm going to teach you probably the most classic poem of all of Chinese history. Basically, this is the first poem that students learn when they begin to study classical Chinese. That doesn't mean it's the best ever, but it is one of the most classic textbook examples of Chinese poetry. Written in the Tang Dynasty by poet Li Bai, this poem is called 静夜思。 Now, 静 means tranquil, 夜 means night, and 思 means think. So, we can translate this title as Thinking on a Quiet Night. Now, let's take a look at the first line. 床 means bed, and 前 in this context means in front of. And the Chinese put the character describing position after the character for the thing they're describing the position in relation to. So, 床前, literally bed in front, means in front of the bed. Next, we have three characters, 明月光. So, 明 means bright, 月 means the moon, and 光 means light. So these three together mean bright moonlight. Thus, the whole line means in front of the bed, there is bright moonlight. Now, for the second line, 疑是地上霜。 疑 means to suspect, and is the same 疑 as in the modern Chinese word 怀疑, to suspect. But we're not talking about suspecting a bad thing here. You could also translate it as seems like, which in modern Chinese is 好像. Then, we have 是, which is basically the same meaning as in modern Chinese, it means is. Then, we have three characters, 地上霜。 地 means the ground, and 上 means on. And if you remember from the first line, the Chinese put position words after the thing they're describing the position in relation to. So, 地上, literally meaning ground on, comes to mean on the ground. Then, the last character, 霜 means frost. So these three characters together mean frost on the ground. And the whole line comes to mean, it seems like there is frost on the ground. So these two lines together refer to the scene that Levi was describing, that the moon was shining so brightly outside the window in front of his bed, that the ground outside the window was lit up and looked white, as if there had been a frost. Now for the next line, 举头望明月。 So, 举 means to raise, and 头 means head. So together, this means to raise the head. It's worth noting, however, that in modern Chinese, you don't say 举头 to raise the head, you say 抬头。 Now let's look at the next three characters, 望明月。 望 means to gaze into the distance, and it can be seen in the modern Chinese word 希望, which means hope. In this context, we can translate the single character as, to gaze at. Now, the next two characters, 明月, mean bright moon. So the whole line, 举头望明月, means, I raise my head and gaze at the bright moon. Now, on to the next and final line, 低头思故乡。 So, 低 means low, but in this context, it is used as a verb, meaning to lower. Then we have the character 头, again meaning head, so together it means, to lower the head. Then we have the character 思, to think, and the two characters 故乡, which together means hometown. So the whole line can be translated, I lower my head and think of my hometown. Now, let's try reading this poem together in Chinese. You can repeat each line after me. Well, thanks for watching guys, and we'll be bringing you more Chinese poems in the weeks to come. 再见!