Meditating in a Serene Night

Li Bai (701—762)

The floor by my bed gets moonlight-glossed.

At first I thought there was frost.

After looking up at the bright moon,

I lower my head, feeling homesick and lost.

Today’s poem is one of the most widely known Chinese poems. Most first graders in China can recite it. While the poem looks simple, there is a controversy about what the noun 床 in the first line of the poem means. The word usually refers to the bed in the modern Chinese language, but some scholars claim that it meant “well-curbs” during the Tang Dynasty. In that case, the first line of the poem should be translated as “The well-curbs appear moonlight-glossed.”

Copyright: A Poetic Portal To Chinese Culture, China Pictorial Press

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