When will spring flowers and autumn moons cease?
How many past joys can I bear to recall?
Last night, again, the east wind blew through my small tower –
And I dared not look back toward my lost land.
Carved railings, jade steps must still be there,
But only my rosy cheeks have faded away.
Ask me how much sorrow I carry inside –
Just like the spring river flowing eastward, endlessly.
Note
Li Yu (937–978), also known as Li Houzhu (“Last Ruler of Southern Tang”), was the final monarch of the Southern Tang kingdom during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Though a failed ruler, he is revered as one of China’s greatest lyric poets. His early ci poems celebrated courtly luxury and romance, but after his kingdom was conquered by the Song dynasty in 975 and he was taken captive, his poetry transformed into profound elegies of loss, memory, and existential sorrow.
His masterpiece “Yu Meiren” (To the Tune of ‘Yu Meiren’), often titled “When Will Spring Flowers and Autumn Moons End?”, is widely believed to be his last poem—written shortly before his execution on suspicion of nostalgia for his lost realm. The opening lines lament the cruel persistence of beauty in nature: “Spring flowers, autumn moons—when will they end? / How many past things do I recall?” What should bring joy now only deepens his pain, as each seasonal cycle reminds him of what he has lost.
He contrasts the unchanging grandeur of his former palace—“Carved balustrades, jade steps must still be there”—with his own altered state: “Only my rosy cheeks have faded.” The most famous line, “My sorrow is like a spring river flowing eastward,” uses the unstoppable current of the Yangtze as a metaphor for endless grief—a sorrow so vast it becomes cosmic.
The poem blends personal anguish with timeless meditation on impermanence, making it a pinnacle of Chinese lyrical expression.
《虞美人·春花秋月何时了》
春花秋月何时了？
往事知多少。
小楼昨夜又东风，
故国不堪回首月明中。
雕栏玉砌应犹在，
只是朱颜改。
问君能有几多愁？
恰似一江春水向东流。
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