明月装饰了你的窗子

明月裝飾了你的窗子
míngyuè zhuāngshì le nǐ de chuāngzi
quotation

Meanings

  1. 1 the bright moon adorned your window
  2. 2 (fig.) you are the landscape in someone else's eyes - roles of viewer and viewed constantly reverse
  3. 3 (lit.) bright-moon decorated-PAST your window

Examples

HSK 5
Biàn Zhīlín shuō míngyuè zhuāngshì le nǐ de chuāngzi, nǐ zhuāngshì le biérén de mèng.
Bian Zhilin wrote, 'the bright moon adorned your window; you adorned another's dream.'
HSK 7-9
Tā kàn zhe yèkōng xiǎngqǐ nà jù míngyuè zhuāngshì le nǐ de chuāngzi.
Looking at the night sky, she recalled the line 'the bright moon adorned your window.'

Tips

history
From 卞之琳《断章》 (Bian Zhilin, Broken Lines, 1935) - a four-line modern poem considered one of the masterpieces of 20th-century Chinese verse: 你站在桥上看风景,看风景人在楼上看你。明月装饰了你的窗子,你装饰了别人的梦 (You stand on the bridge watching the view; the view-watcher up in the tower is watching you. The bright moon adorned your window; you adorned another's dream). The poem's perspectival reversal - viewer becomes viewed - made it a touchstone of Chinese modernism.
usage
Modern baihua (vernacular) poetry, not classical, but quoted as freely as any Tang couplet. The 了 is a past/completed aspect marker, not the classical particle. Always recited with the closing line 你装饰了别人的梦.

Stroke Order

明 míng
月 yuè
装 zhuāng
饰 shì
了 le
你 nǐ
的 de
窗 chuāng
子 zǐ