春梦 (chūnmèng): spring dream

Meanings

1 spring dream
2 erotic dream
3 short-lived illusion
4 fleeting fancy

Characters

春

chūn

spring (season) / youth / eroticism (classical)

梦

mèng

dream

Examples

那段感情不过是一场春梦，醒来什么都没了。

Nà duàn gǎnqíng bùguò shì yī chǎng chūnmèng, xǐng lái shénme dōu méi le.

That romance was nothing but a fleeting dream — when it was over, nothing remained.

他的发财计划最终只是一场春梦。

Tā de fācái jìhuà zuìzhōng zhǐshì yī chǎng chūnmèng.

His get-rich plan turned out to be nothing but a pipe dream.

Tips

usage

春梦 has two main uses: (1) literally, an erotic dream (春 = spring, associated with sexuality in classical Chinese); (2) figuratively, a beautiful but fleeting illusion. The figurative sense is the more common usage in modern written Chinese and is not vulgar.