POETRY · STORIES · CULTURE

A few words, a wider world.

Follow original texts, sources and cultural context from one reading to the next.

Start hereLi BaiMoonShakespeare
Landscape detail by Wang JianLandscape · Wang Jian · The Met / CC0CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON · SIMILAR, NOT IDENTICAL

Shared moonlight, different cultural work
Quiet Night Thoughts · Li BaiThe Moon

Both poems let the moon organise night-time looking. One turns the gaze toward home; the English counterpart surveys a child's imagined night world. They are comparable, but not equivalent instances of one universal moon symbol.

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Tang poetry · Nature and everyday life

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王之涣 · 唐

On the Stork Tower

白日依山尽，黄河入海流。 欲穷千里目，更上一层楼。

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《全唐诗》

World poetry · Across languages

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Idioms · Stories in short expressions

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Drawing Legs on a SnakeMeaning, origins and usage ↗Constant Dripping Wears Away StoneMeaning, origins and usage ↗Blossoms in Bloom, Moon at Its FullestMeaning, origins and usage ↗To Know Autumn from a Single LeafMeaning, origins and usage ↗

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People & periods →
杜甫 →王之涣 →王维 →Christopher Marlowe →Sir Walter Raleigh →William Shakespeare →Aesop (George Fyler Townsend translation) →Elphinstone Dayrell (colonial-era English retelling) →