Quote by Li Bai: “Bright moonlight before my bed: I thought it was frost on the ground.”

One of the most beloved poems in Chinese literature works through a single moment of misperception: light taken for frost, beauty taken for coldness. The poem is about homesickness, but arrives at it sideways — through the body's confusion before the mind catches up.

Li Bai wrote during the early Tang dynasty, a cosmopolitan period of extraordinary cultural confidence in China. He spent much of his life wandering between cities and courts, frequently expressing longing for his distant homeland. The poem Quiet Night Thought, from which this line comes, became one of the most memorized poems in Chinese history and is still taught to Chinese schoolchildren today.

Tang dynasty Chinese poet, considered one of the two greatest poets in classical Chinese literature alongside Du Fu. Known for his romanticism, his celebration of wine and nature, and his Taoist-inflected celebrations of freedom and wandering, he was a court poet under Emperor Xuanzong before falling from favor. His poems have been translated into more languages than those of any other Chinese author.