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16
The Poet Li Po
Snatch the joys of life as they come and use them to the fill;Do not leave the silver cup idly glinting at the moon.The things Heaven madeMan was meant to use;A thousand guilders scattered to the wind may come back again.Roast mutton and sliced beef will only taste wellIf you drink with them at one sitting three hundred cups.Master Ts'ēn Ts'an,Doctor Tan-ch'iu,Here is wine: do not stop drinking,But listen, please, and I will sing you a song.
Bells and drums and fine food, what are they to me,Who only want to get drunk and never again be sober?The Saints and Sages of old times are all stock and still;Only the mighty drinkers of wine have left a name behind.When the king of Ch'en gave a feast in the Palace of P'ing-loWith twenty thousand gallons of wine he loosed mirth and play.The master of the feast must not cry that his money is all spent;Let him send to the tavern and fetch more, to keep your glasses filled.His five-flower horse and thousand-guilder coat—Let him call his boy to take them along and sell them for good wine,That drinking together we may drive away the sorrows of a thousand years.
III. 26.
The Sun
O Sun that rose in the eastern corner of Earth,Looking as though you came from under the ground,When you crossed the sky and entered the deep sea,Where did you stable your six dragon-steeds?
