暗香浮动月黄昏

暗香浮動月黃昏
ànxiāngfúdòngyuèhuánghūn
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 a hidden fragrance drifts on the dusk under the moon
  2. 2 (fig.) the exquisite, almost imperceptible beauty of plum blossom at twilight
  3. 3 (lit.) hidden scent floats-moves moon dusk

Examples

Méi yuán bàngwǎn sànbù, àn xiāng fú dòng yuè huánghūn, ràng rén xīn kuàng shén yí.
Strolling the plum garden at dusk, 'a hidden fragrance drifting under the moon at twilight,' it lifts the spirit.
Zhè shǒu cí zhǐ cǐ yī jù àn xiāng fú dòng yuè huánghūn, biàn ràng zuòzhě míng chuí qiāngǔ.
This single line, 'hidden fragrance drifting under the moon at dusk,' alone made the author's name last a thousand years.

Tips

history
From 其一 (Lin Bu, 'Little Plum in the Mountain Garden,' no. 1, Northern Song, early 11th c.): 浮动黄昏 (Sparse shadows slant across the clear shallow water; a hidden fragrance drifts on the dusk under the moon). Lin Bu was a hermit on Gushan at West Lake who famously 'took the plum as wife and the crane as son' (). This couplet is considered the greatest plum-blossom poem ever written.
usage
Always paired with . The two phrases and each became poem titles in their own right (e.g. Jiang Kui's song-lyrics). Quoted whenever evoking understated fragrance or restrained beauty.

Stroke Order

àn
xiāng
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huáng
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