春晓春曉
chūn春mián眠bù jué不觉xiǎo晓，
chù chù处处wén闻tí啼niǎo鸟。
yè夜lái来fēng yǔ风雨shēng声，
huā花là落zhī知duō shǎo多少。
Line by line
- 春眠不觉晓，春眠不覺曉， Asleep in spring, I missed the dawn;
- 处处闻啼鸟。處處聞啼鳥。 now everywhere I hear the birds.
- 夜来风雨声，夜來風雨聲， In the night came the sound of wind and rain —
- 花落知多少。 how many blossoms must have fallen?
The poet & the story
Meng Haoran (689–740) spent most of his life in quiet retirement near Xiangyang, writing about landscapes and farm life; Li Bai admired him enormously. This poem was written at his hermitage on Lumen Mountain, where he lived as a recluse in his early years — before his one unsuccessful attempt at an official career in the capital.
Interpretation
The poet sleeps so deeply in spring that he misses the dawn, waking to birdsong on every side. Then he remembers: wind and rain in the night. How many blossoms must have fallen? The poem holds both the sweetness of spring and a gentle regret that beauty passes — all in twenty syllables a child can recite.