Li Bai

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.

The birds have vanished into the sky and now the last cloud drains away. We sit together the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains.

The world is like a great empty dream.

I lift my goblet to melt away sorrow, but sorrow continues in sorrow.

Flying waters descending straight three thousand feet, Till I think the Milky Way has tumbled from the ninth height of Heaven.

Heaven is high, Earth Wide. Bitter between them flies my sorrow.

When the hunter sets traps only for rabbits, tigers and dragons are left uncaught.

The birds have vanished into the sky, and now the last cloud drains away.

I wake with the moon on my pillow—it’s frost, I suppose.

The earth is the cup of the river, and heaven the moon’s mirror.

I laugh wildly when leaving home—am I not one of those men?

My white hair stretches thirty thousand feet—such is the length of my sorrow!

I could have been a great immortal, but I loved wine too much.

The monkeys scream on both banks—it’s unbearable!

I dreamt I wandered to the moon—it was cold and wet.

I’d rather drink a gallon of wine than read ten thousand books.

The moon follows me like an old friend.

You ask for what reason I stay on the green mountain, I smile, but do not answer, my heart is at leisure. Peach blossom is carried far off by flowing water, Apart, I have heaven and earth in the human world.

The world is like a great empty dream. Why should one toil away one's life?

Since Life is but a Dream, Why toil to no avail?