Night Thoughts, Li Bai (Tang Shi #232)

[lnhammer]

Before my bed, moonbeams so bright
It looks like frost upon the ground.
I raise my head, gaze at the bright moon;
I lower my head, and think of home.

夜思
床前明月光，
疑是地上霜。
举头望明月，
低头思故乡。

Again, no explicit “I” but it’s the really easy reading, especially given the personal topic of one’s hometown. (Pro-drop languages are so fun.) “It looks like” may be too mild—the original is closer to “(I) mistake it for”. This is sometimes given a raunchy reading: the moonlight-cum-frost is a naked bedmate, the moon(s) her breasts, and home between her legs.

Li Bai is generally considered one of China’s greatest poets ever. In his youth, he was a martial artist wandering the rivers and lakes—at least, so he claimed. Wuxia tropes really are that old.

(BTW, I’m not including pinyin pronunciations because Middle Chinese was significantly different, and there’s no solid agreement on the reconstructed sounds or, especially, tones.)

—L.

Comments

[sovay]

Middle Chinese was significantly different, and there’s no solid agreement on the reconstructed sounds or, especially, tones.)

I didn't know that!

[lnhammer]

That we know the tones were different is largely from poetry — there were “regulated” forms that required following a tone pattern, and the results just don’t fit, using modern pronunciations. We know pronunciations changed from the pronunciations taken over in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese at different eras. The latter, with phonetic drifts, has resulted in several reconstructions. The tones, I’m less clear on.

[sartorias]

Wouldn't the two top ones be something like evening reverie?

[lnhammer]

Night is closer — evening would be 晚. Reverie is as good a translation, I think, for 思.

[sartorias]

Right about night.

These are great. Way above my pay grade, but that's how we learn, eh?

[lnhammer]

A bit above my pay grade as well — thus my taking these on, to learn.