See how the Yellow River's waters move out of heaven.
Entering the ocean, never to return.
See how lovely locks in bright mirrors in high chambers,
Though silken-black at morning, have changed by night to snow.
...Oh, let a man of spirit venture where he pleases
And never tip his golden cup empty toward the moon!
Since heaven gave the talent, let it be employed!
Spin a thousand pieces of silver, all of them come back!
Cook a sheep, kill a cow, whet the appetite,
And make me, of three hundred bowls, one long drink!
...To the old master, Ts'en,
And the young scholar, Tan-ch'iu,
Bring in the wine!
Let your cups never rest!
Let me sing you a song!
Let your ears attend!
What are bell and drum, rare dishes and treasure?
Let me be forever drunk and never come to reason!
Sober men of olden days and sages are forgotten,
And only the great drinkers are famous for all time.
...Prince Ch'en paid at a banquet in the Palace of Perfection
Ten thousand coins for a cask of wine, with many a laugh and quip.
Why say, my host, that your money is gone?
Go and buy wine and we'll drink it together!
My flower-dappled horse,
My furs worth a thousand,
Hand them to the boy to exchange for good wine,
And we'll drown away the woes of ten thousand generations!
Original Poem:
「将进酒」
李白
君不见黄河之水天上来，奔流到海不复回。
君不见高堂明镜悲白发，朝如青丝暮成雪。
人生得意须尽欢，莫使金樽空对月。
天生我材必有用，千金散尽还复来。
烹羊宰牛且为乐，会须一饮三百杯。
岑夫子，丹丘生，将进酒，杯莫停。
与君歌一曲，请君为我倾耳听。
钟鼓馔玉不足贵，但愿长醉不复醒。
古来圣贤皆寂寞，惟有饮者留其名。
陈王昔时宴平乐，斗酒十千恣欢谑。
主人何为言少钱，径须沽取对君酌。
五花马、千金裘，呼儿将出换美酒，与尔同销万古愁。
Interpretation:
In 752 A.D., Li Bai and his friend Cen Zhengjun drank wine at his friend Yuan Danqiu’s Yingyang Mountain Residence in Songshan Mountain. Lamenting the passage of time and his lack of success, Li Bai was filled with sadness and indignation, and he used the tune of “Bringing in the wine” to express his out-of-place but generous and confident feelings, fully demonstrating the poet’s arrogance and uninhibited inner world.
The whole poem is written from “sadness”: time passes, like a river flowing into the sea, and there is no return; life is too short to see the green silk and white snow in the morning and evening. The smallness of life and the shortness of life seem to be irredeemable tragedies that make people sigh and feel sad. But Li Bai, after all, is a bold man, then reversed to “joy”. Life will have no regrets, when the joy of indulgence, do not let the golden cup empty to the bright moon, because the only thing that can relieve the worries of the golden bottle of wine. This is the Li Bai style of sadness: sad but can be strong, sad but not hurt, both indignation and extremely bold. On the surface, he is lamenting that life is easy to grow old, but on the inside, he is lamenting that his talent is unrecognised. Ideal destruction is caused by the dark society, the poet is powerless to change, so can only be the sky of anger into a bold act of fun, venting dissatisfaction, to dispel the sadness. Negative coat is wrapped in a desire to use the world positively, but not the talent of a strong heart. Therefore, the poet turns from grief and anger to wild exuberance and singing.
Wine will meet friends, is the pleasure of life, but also at the time of “unrecognised talent”, so the poet to play on the theme, as much as possible to spit out in the chest of the unfairness of the gas. He sang: since life can’t keep you rich, then cook sheep and slaughter cows and enjoy yourself. In the bells and drums in the enjoyment of rich food luxury life is not precious, but hope to be forever intoxicated no longer sober. Since ancient times, those sages are not lonely, but only the love of wine can leave a beautiful name. Singing in the heat of the moment, he wants to bring the expensive horse, take out the expensive price of a thousand gold fur, all used to change the wine, together to melt the endless feelings of sadness and bitterness!
Although Li Bai used the old title of this poem, he was able to break away from his predecessors and create his own new ideas, combining drinking with criticism of the dark reality. Emotions from sadness to joy, to wild, to anger, and then to wild, and finally to “ten thousand years of sorrow”, response to the first, so that people can not help but sigh in admiration of the poet’s unrestrained and magnificent. However, behind the bold words of wine is a wave of emotions. Although the beginning of the poem has the intention of lamenting the flying of time, the whole poem has different lengths of sentences, and the rhythm of the poem is unrestrained and staggering, spreading out and spreading out, and the poet’s love for wine is fully expressed.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Li Bai (李白), 701 ~ 762 A.D., whose ancestral home was in Gansu, was preceded by Li Guang, a general of the Han Dynasty. Tang poetry is one of the brightest constellations in the history of Chinese literature, and one of the brightest stars is Li Bai.
