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黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛

黑夜給了我黑色的眼睛
hēiyègěilewǒhēisèdeyǎnjīng
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 the black night gave me black eyes
  2. 2 the dark age has given me eyes made for seeing in the dark
  3. 3 Gu Cheng's iconic line on being born to a broken era

Examples

黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛，我却用它寻找光明。
Hēi yè gěi le wǒ hēisè de yǎnjīng, wǒ què yòng tā xúnzhǎo guāngmíng.
The black night gave me black eyes, yet I use them to search for light.
这一代人常引用黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛。
Zhè yí dài rén cháng yǐnyòng hēi yè gěi le wǒ hēisè de yǎnjīng.
This generation often quotes 'the black night gave me black eyes.'

Tips

history
From Gu Cheng's (顾城, 1979) two-line poem 《一代人》 ('A Generation'): 黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛，我却用它寻找光明 — 'The black night gave me black eyes, yet I use them to search for light.' Written by the 23-year-old Gu Cheng, one of the 朦胧诗 ('Misty Poetry') leaders, as a manifesto for the generation that grew up in the Cultural Revolution. One of the most quoted lines in modern Chinese.
usage
Almost always quoted with its second half 我却用它寻找光明 — the surprise pivot that turns the first line from fatalism into defiance. The couplet is the unofficial motto of post-Cultural-Revolution Chinese literature and still appears everywhere — from tattoos to political speeches.

Stroke Order

黑 hēi
夜 yè
给 gěi
了 le
我 wǒ
色 sè
的 de
眼 yǎn
睛 jīng