history
From 李煜 (Li Yu, 'Lang Tao Sha: Beyond the Blind, the Rain Patters,' late Southern Tang, c. 978 CE): 帘外雨潺潺，春意阑珊... 梦里不知身是客，一晌贪欢 (Beyond the blind, rain patters; spring is waning... In dream I forgot I was a stranger - one brief stretch of stolen joy). Li Yu wrote it in captivity in the Song capital after his kingdom fell; he was poisoned shortly after. One of the most piercing lines of Chinese lyric poetry.
usage
Often paired with 一晌贪欢 ('one brief spell of stolen joy'). Modern usage: nostalgia, exile, displacement; any moment of sweet forgetting that reality snaps back on.
