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andru235
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[[[posting this is oEphebe inspired]]]
Li Bo, "chinese" (turkic?) poet 701-762
CONVERSATION AMONG THE MOUNTAINS
(((trans. unknown)))
Why live
in these green mountains
you ask
I smile;
but cannot answer
I am occupied with peacefulness
Through the air
a peach blossom sails
on the current of the wind
There are many worlds
beyond this one
A STATEMENT OF RESOLUTIONS AFTER BEING DRUNK ON A SPRING DAY (((trans. Amy Lowell and Florence Ayscough)))
This time of ours
Is like a great, confused dream.
Why should one spend one's life in toil?
Thinking this, I have been drunk all day.
I fell down and lay prone by the pillars in front of the house;
When I woke up, I gazed for a long time
At the courtyard before me.
A bird sings among the flowers.
May I ask what season this is?
Spring wind,
The bright oriole of the water-flowing flight calls.
FOR THE DANCER OF THE KING OF WU, WHEN SHE IS HALF DRUNK (((trans. Robert Payne et al.)))
The wind waves the lotuses in the scented palace by the water.
In the Gusu Tower, the King of Wu is carousing.
Xi Shi, flushed with wine, dances coy and unresisting.
By the east windows, laughing, she leans on a couch of white jade.
DRINKING WITH A FRIEND, AMONG THE MOUNTAINS (((trans. Jerome P. Seaton))) [[[personal fave!]]]
Together, we drink; the mountain flowers open.
A cup, a cup, and one more cup.
Drunk, I'd sleep, you go.
Tomorrow, come again: Do bring your lute.
DRINKING ALONE IN THE MOONLIGHT (((trans. unknown)))
[[[ Part One ]]]
Beneath the blossoms with a pot of wine,
No friends at hand, so I poured alone;
I raised my cup to invite the moon,
Turned to my shadow, and we became three.
Now the moon had never learned about drinking,
And my shadow had merely followed my form,
But I quickly made friends with the moon and my shadow;
To find pleasure in life, make the most of spring.
Whenever I sang, the moon swayed with me;
Whenever I danced, my shadow went wild.
Drinking, we shared our enjoyment together;
Drunk, the each went off on his own.
But forever agreed on dispassionate revels,
We promised to meet in the far Milky Way.
[[[ Part Two ]]]
Now, if Heaven didn't love wine,
There wouldn't be a Wine Star in Heaven.
And if Earth didn't love wine,
Earth shouldn't have the town of Wine Spring.
But since Heaven and Earth love wine,
Loving wine is no crime with Heaven.
The light, I hear, is like a sage;
The heavy, they say, is called the worthy.
If I have drunk with a sage and worthy,
What need have I to search for immortals?
Three cups and I've mastered The Way;
A jarful and I am at one with Nature.
A man can get hold of the spirit of drinking,
But no point explaining to those who abstain!
[[[ Part Three ]]]
Third month in the city of Xianyang,
And a thousand flowers make the day a brocade.
Who would sorrow alone in the springtime?
Faced with this you must drink straightaway.
Failure, success, and long span or short
Are fates that Creation decreed from the start,
But a cup makes life and death the same
And the ten thousand things are distinguished no more.
I get drunk and lose track of Heaven and Earth;
Sinking, I go to my pillow alone.
Then not to know the existence of me,
This is the pleasure highest of all.
[[[ Part Four ]]]
I have ten million sources of sorrow,
But only three hundred cups of wine.
My sorrows are many and the cups are few,
But pouring a cup keeps sorrow away.
And I know that I have the sage in my cup,
For in my cups my heart always smiles.
Go hide on Mount Shouyang, refuse the Zhou grain; or
Be frequently empty and starve like Yan Hui:
And after a lifetime with no joy in drinking,
What will you do with your hollow fame?
A crab claw is the Golden Elixir;
A hill of dregs is Paradise Mountain.
The thing to do is drink good wine;
Go out with the moon and get drunk on a tower.
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051106
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