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 Listen to Shirley Singing the Poem in Chinese & in English Sep 15,2016
Listen to Shirley Singing the Poem in English & Chinese Sep 15,2016
Listen to Shirley Explaining the Poem & Follow Me to Read It
Follow Shirley to Read the New Words & the Poem
Learn the Meaning of the Poem
See Shirley Created Paintings for the Poem Sep 10,2016
See Shirley Created Paintings for the Poem Dec 29,2014 - Jan 3, 2015
Today -- Sep 15, 2016 is the Mid-autumn Festival of China. I would like to introduce a famous poem which relates to the moon by Li Bai who was one of the greatest poets in Chinese history.
 The Main Meaning of the Poem and the Lyrics of the Song in English
Missing my Hometown in the Peaceful Night
By Li Bai (701-762)
Tang Dynasty (618-907)
Bright moonlight is by my bed.
Is it the frost on the ground?
Raising my head I see the silvery moon,
Lowing my head I miss my hometown.
Original Poem, Lyrics of the Song in Chinese and Pronunciations
You can click on any Chinese Character to open the New Character Board and see its Chinese pinyin, meaning, pronunciation and follow me to read it; you can also click on the links to enter the Vocal, Bilingual Poetry & Painting Series of Painting Column, or to enter the Classical Column of Chinese Language column.
紊 -- J狸ng Y竪 S朝
- L B叩i (701-762)
- t叩ng 鐚618-907鐚
綺 - Chu叩ng qi叩n m鱈ng yu竪gung,
遺 - y鱈sh狸d狸shng shung
筝上ご - J坦u wng m鱈ngyu竪,
篏紊贋箙 - d朝t坦u s朝g湛xing.
About the Poet
Li Bai (701-762) is one of the most renowned and admired poets in China , He was born in Chengji (near today's Gansu province and it is also said that he was born in todays Tianshui in Gansu ). When he was 5 years old, he was taken to Sichuan by his father.
Li Bai was influenced by both Confucianism and Taoism. He started to travel in the country when he was 25 years old. Then he entered the imperial court and became a member of the Han-lin Academy at the age of 42. He was greatly delighted and eager to serve the emperor as a capable statesman. But the Emperor Xuanzong only had him as a wonderful palace poet to write trivial lyrics. He was unwilling to serve such a meaningless function, so he left the capital in less than two years, to start his second travel, aimlessly wandering all over the country. Then he was charged as an adherent of the rebel cause and sentenced to exile, though he was pardoned on the way. He died of some illness at Dangtu in today's Anhui .
Li Bai lived during the most flourishing times in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). Most of his poems reflect the positive spirit of the times. He is considered as the foremost romantic poet of the Tang Dynasty and his writing style has influenced poets down to the present day.
About 1,100 poems by Li Bai have come down from his times. They are very popular and are recited by Chinese from their childhoods.
 Enjoy the Poem
It is said that Li Bai wrote this poem at a hotel in Yang Zhou (in todays Jiangsu Province) on the fifteenth day of the ninth lunar month, when he was 26 years old in 726. The moonlight covering his bed set off his homesickness so that he could not help getting up and writing this well-known little poem.
Let us first enjoy it line by line:
The first line: 綺 - Chu叩ng qi叩n m鱈ng yu竪gung綺 chu叩ng means bed, about this word, there are three other versions meanings: n. well, window, camp chair. qi叩n means front, in front of; m鱈ng means bright; yu竪 means moon; gung means light; means bright moon. This line means bright moonlight is by my bed.
The second line: 遺 y鱈 sh狸 d狸shng shung y鱈 means doubt, suspect; means be is are; d狸 means ground, 筝shng means above, over, on the surface ; shung means frost. This line means I doubt it is the frost on the ground.
The third line: 筝上ご - Jt坦u wng m鱈ngyu竪筝紊J坦u means raise one head. Here筝J means raise; 紊t坦u means head. wng means look over, look up; m鱈ngyu竪 means bright moon. m鱈ng means bright; yu竪 means moon. This line means when I raise my head, I see the bright moon.
The last line: 篏紊贋箙 - d朝t坦u s朝g湛xing. 篏紊d朝t坦u means lower ones head; 篏d朝 means low, lower; 紊t坦u means head; s朝 means think, miss; 箙g湛xing means hometown, country. This line means when I lower my head, I miss my hometown.
The biggest character of this poem is the extreme simplicity of its language, it is easy and natural; like spoken language, it paints out a series pictures and includes some psychological activities and some physical activities of the poet, a little natural scenery and a lot of meaning; it gives readers a big imaginative space; it shows the masterly skill of language usage and artistic conception creation of Li Bai. Therefore, this little poem, with only 20 Chinese characters has been beloved of Chinese people for about 1,300 years and is included in almost all collections of Chinese classical poetry and into the textbooks of Chinese elementary schools. Many Chinese people can recite it when they are 2 or 3 years old and still enjoy it when they are 70 or 80.
Now we can go back to the first two lines綺 Chu叩ng qi叩n m鱈ng yu竪gung, 遺 y鱈 sh狸 d狸shng shung Looking at the bright moonlight by my bed, I doubt it is the frost on the ground. The first two lines show us time, place and the psychological activity of the poet. When he wakes up at midnight and sees some rays by his bed, the first reflection in his mind is that it may be frost, since it is late fall. Then he could not be sure about it for his eyes were heavy with sleep. Since there is some doubt, he cannot helping getting up and going to the window or simply going out of the door to check what the light front of his bed is. However, when he raises his head, looking up the bright moon, a long-term homesickness comes into his heart, so that he lowers his head with an overwhelming feeling of missing his hometown. So, there are the last two lines 筝上ご Jt坦u wng m鱈ngyu竪, 篏紊贋箙 d朝t坦u s朝g湛xing.-- Raising my head I see the mountains and the moon, lowing my head I miss my hometown, to write about the physical activities and more psychological activities.
 From y鱈 doubt , then to wng look up and then to s朝 miss, long for or think of , from筝紊Jt坦u raise my head to篏紊d朝t坦u lower my head , we see a series psychological activities and physical actions. Plus the words綺Chu叩ng bed , yu竪gung moonlight , shung frost , m鱈ngyu竪 bright moon , and 箙 g湛xing hometown show us a succession of views and scenes relating to architecture, seasons, sky, travel, family members, countries and so on with all of these together, this little poem not only creates a quite clear artistic conception, but also it leaves a huge scope for our imagination. All of this is expressed in just 20 Chinese characters with very simple words, we can see how good Li Bai is at language usage and at writing poetry. This is why his work, together with that of Du Fu, represent the highest peak of Chinese poetry.
There are two versions of this poem, one is the current version we have learned, which is from the record of the Ming Dynasty (1368 1644 ); the other version is from the record of the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279) ,which has something different:
綺 - Chu叩ng qi叩n kn yu竪gung,
遺 - y鱈sh狸d狸shng shung
筝紊絮 - J坦u wng shnyu竪,
篏紊贋箙 - d朝t坦u s朝g湛xing.
It means:
Look the bright moonlight is by my bed.
Is it the frost on the ground?
Raising my head I see the mountains and the moon,
Lowering my head I miss my hometown.
The second version is nearer to the times when Li Bai lived, but the first version is more popular and is included in many different textbooks. I have written the latter for your information.
Inspiration:
Sometimes, the more simple and the more natural the better. The more natural language requires a higher ability to master the language. If we want to reach the level of simplicity and nature, we must have gone over the process from simple to complex then back to simple.
It is same as a person. When we start off in the world, we are pure and simple and then when we pass away, we are also simple and pure.
In the first phase we come to the world, we don't have much knowledge, skill or property to live and we have little life experience , we are simple and natural. In the last phase of life, we have already seen, thought and done many things in the world, so that we understand and see many things clearly and have not many desires, so that when we reach a certain age, we change to being simple and pure.
The most difficult is during our middle phase. We are too complex for we have too many desires and burdens so that we want to keep something we have had or get something more from this world or from others.
So, if someone wants to be more simple and natural, perhaps the best way is to not have as many desires and also be more giving. When we often give something to others, instead of wanting to get from the others, we will become simple, natural and also happier. Do you think so?
This is the first Chinese poem that I introduced to my readers in 2005. At that time, I went to about 20 music stores but I did not find any ready and suitable music to match it. Also, I had no database to save any vocabulary in the poem. I had no choice but have to think of composing music to match Chinese classical poem by myself and founded my own database. Then I did. Until now. I have created more than 170 pieces of music and painted more than 100 pictures to match Classical Chinese poems and the music.
However, until August, 2014, I had only composed a piece of music to match this poem and it was not until the New Years Day holiday of Chinese National Academy of Arts 2015, that I created a picture to match this poem and the music first time . Now I have re-written the article, re-created the music and painting already. My Chinese English  tutors Mrs. Xiaogang Zhang, English English tutor Mr. Mike Joyce and Professor Weiye Meng who is my music coach have checked and corrected my articles and music.
I do hope our effort will be some help to you to learn more Chinese culture, music and language.
If you have any questions, comments and suggestions, please write to shirley@ebridge.cn ; you are welcome to publish your opinions on the Message Board as well.
Shirley Yiping Zhang
Wrote, Painted, Translated, Sang & Recorded the Content on Sep 15, 2016/Sep 3, 2005
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Classical Poems/Lyrics
