夜雨寄北
yè yǔ jì běi
Night Rain — Letter to the North
李商隐 (Li Shangyin) · Tang Dynasty · 813–858
Original Text
君问归期未有期，
jūn wèn guī qī wèi yǒu qī,
巴山夜雨涨秋池。
bā shān yè yǔ zhǎng qiū chí.
何当共剪西窗烛，
hé dāng gòng jiǎn xī chuāng zhú,
却话巴山夜雨时。
què huà bā shān yè yǔ shí.
English Translation
You ask when I will return — there is no date set. The night rain on Mount Ba swells the autumn pools. When will we sit together trimming candles by the west window, and talk about this night of rain on Mount Ba?
Historical Background
Li Shangyin wrote this poem while stranded in the Ba (Sichuan) region, far from his wife in Chang'an. The letter he received asked when he would return, but he had no answer. The poem is remarkable for its structure: the present (rain, loneliness) and an imagined future (reunion) fold into each other through the repeated phrase "night rain on Mount Ba."
Literary Analysis
The repetition of "Ba Mountain night rain" (巴山夜雨) creates a temporal loop. In the present, the rain is a source of melancholy. In the imagined future, that same rain becomes a story to share with a loved one — transforming suffering into memory, loneliness into intimacy. The act of "trimming candles" suggests a long, unhurried conversation late into the night. The poem turns present pain into future tenderness.
Details
Form
Seven-character Quatrain (七言绝句)
Theme
Love & Devotion
About Li Shangyin (李商隐)
Li Shangyin was a late Tang Dynasty poet celebrated for his richly allusive, emotionally complex verse. His love poems are considered among the finest in Chinese literature, though their dense symbolism has kept scholars debating their meaning for centuries. He is paired with Du Mu as the "Little Li and Du" (小李杜).
2 poems by Li Shangyin in our collection
Traditional Chinese
君問歸期未有期，巴山夜雨漲秋池。何當共剪西窗燭，卻話巴山夜雨時。