Stone-Fish Lake is like Lake Dongting --
When the top of Zun is green and the summer tide is rising.
...With the mountain for a table, and the lake a fount of wine,
The tipplers all are settled along the sandy shore.
Though a stiff wind for days has roughened the water,
Wine-boats constantly arrive...
I have a long-necked gourd and, happy on Ba Island,
I am pouring a drink in every direction doing away with care.
Original Poem:
「石鱼湖上醉歌」
元结
石鱼湖， 似洞庭，夏水欲满君山青。
山为樽， 水为沼，酒徒历历坐洲鸟。
长风连日作大浪， 不能废人运酒舫。
我持长瓢坐巴丘， 酌饮四座以散愁。
Interpretation:
This poem expresses the author’s love for Stonefish Lake.
The first three lines compare the Stone Fish Lake with the Dongting Lake with great vigor. In fact, the greatness of the lake is in the poet’s heart, not in its appearance. It is because the poet loves the lake so much that the lake is as vast and boundless as the Dongting Lake in the poet’s heart.
Four to eight lines, although there is no shocking words, but also exactly reflects the Yuan Jie narrative easy poetry characteristics. The poet is dissatisfied with the present and helpless, however, drinking to dispel his sorrows can only temporarily paralyze himself. The poet’s bitterness mainly comes from his compassionate civilian thoughts, and at that time, it was almost impossible for the ruler to care about the people, so he could only fantasize about going back to seclusion between the mountains and the landscape and seek drunkenness to relieve a thousand sorrows.
The poem’s freshness of tone, simplicity of style, ease and naturalness, and lack of formality fully demonstrate his own unique style of poetic creation.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Yuan Jie (元结), 719 – 772 A.D., was a native of Lushan, Henan Province, and was admitted as a jinshi (进士) in 753 A.D.
In his poetic creation, he strongly opposed the formalist style of poetry, which was “restricted to sound and disease, and preferred resemblance”, and did not write any close poems in his life, and his ancient poems were plain, simple, simple, and natural, and formed their own style. His poems are simple, plain, simple and natural, and he has his own style. The contents of his poems are mostly satirical of current politics and reflect the hardships of the people.
