Category: Li Bai

  • By Myself Pouring Wine as the Moon Shines

        by Li Bai (701-762)     By Myself Pouring Wine as the Moon Shines     From the filled jug of wine left within the blossoming bed, I pour with no love nor family by. Loneliness sets in. Drawn to its beam, I raise a brimming cup and face the moon– an encounter…

  • Li Bai drinking alone (with the moon, his shadow, & 43 translators)

    The Tang poet Li Bai–a.k.a. Li Po, Li Bo and the Poet Immortal–left us over 1,000 poems. Besides these, he is also known by the way it is said he died. He supposedly drowned drunk, trying to embrace the moon’s reflection in the Yangtze River. Below are 41 English translations (from 43 translators (and counting))…

  • Misplaced Leisure Water: The Displaced Function of Poetry

            In a Books Inq. blog post from yesterday, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s books editor, Frank Wilson, linked to this item in Poetry Magazine: Does Poetry Have a Social Function? Here is some of what he wrote: On New Year’s Eve, one of our dinner guests, a beautiful Chinese woman, read several classical…