水调歌头 · 明月几时有，把酒问青 original text
Stay close to the sentence.
When did the bright moon exist? Holding the wine, I ask the blue sky.
I do not know what palace in heaven, what year it is tonight.
I want to ride the wind and return there, yet fear the jade towers and halls are too cold at the height.
I rise and dance, playing with my clear shadow; how is it like being in the human world?
It turns around the vermilion tower, lowers through carved windows, shining on the sleepless.
It should not have regret, so why does it become full when people part?
People have joy and sorrow, meeting and separation; the moon has dimness and brightness, waxing and waning. This has always been difficult to make complete.
May we all live long, and share this moonlight across a thousand miles.
Let the image breathe.
How long has the bright moon been there? I raise my wine and ask the blue sky.
I cannot know which heavenly palace holds this night, or what year it is.
I would ride the wind home, but I fear the jade towers would be too cold above.
I rise and dance with my clear shadow. Is this really the human world?
The moon crosses the red tower, slips through carved windows, and shines on the sleepless.
It has no reason to be bitter, so why is it roundest when people must part?
People meet joy and sorrow, come together and separate. The moon waxes and wanes. Nothing has ever been complete.
May we live long, and share this beautiful moon a thousand miles apart.
What to know
The lyric is written as a moonlit meditation on separation and reunion. Rather than solve the tension between the heavenly and human worlds, Su Shi lets the poem move through doubt, imagination, and finally a generous acceptance of what cannot be made whole.
What to notice
The moon is both distant object and intimate presence. It passes over towers and windows, connecting sleepers who cannot share the same room. The closing wish turns private longing into a form of companionship across distance.
Three useful phrases.
- 青天
- the blue or clear sky, addressed as if it could answer
- 瓊樓玉宇
- imagined jade towers and palaces in the moonlit heavens
- 嬋娟
- beautiful moonlight or the moon’s graceful beauty