Amidst The Flowers A Jug Of Wine Poem by Li Po

Amidst The Flowers A Jug Of Wine

Rating: 2.9


Amidst the flowers a jug of wine,
I pour alone lacking companionship.
So raising the cup I invite the Moon,
Then turn to my shadow which makes three of us.
Because the Moon does not know how to drink,
My shadow merely follows the movement of my body.
The moon has brought the shadow to keep me company a while,
The practice of mirth should keep pace with spring.
I start a song and the moon begins to reel,
I rise and dance and the shadow moves grotesquely.
While I'm still conscious let's rejoice with one another,
After I'm drunk let each one go his way.
Let us bind ourselves for ever for passionless journeyings.
Let us swear to meet again far in the Milky Way.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Smoky Hoss 17 March 2012

Can anyone explain why Mr. Straw (who certainly appears to be a fine poet) seems so angry, so often? Does the sun refuse to shine into his window upon the world?

1 5 Reply
Kevin Straw 17 March 2011

Olivarez - If you had an ear and an eye you would see that this translation clunks along like an old jalopy. What you are saying is that every poem and every translation cannot be faulted. I suggest you wake up and smell the coffee!

1 4 Reply
Juan Olivarez 17 March 2011

Unfortunately as I told you in our private letter, you seem to have appointed yourself the Judge Jury and Executioner for all of us on poemhunter and you also believe you know better than all the great poets, because you always change their words and substitute your own. I think you are just arrogant, and full of yourself. Nuff said.

1 4 Reply
Mohammad Akmal Nazir 07 June 2011

Fine poem having conventional ideas of wine drinking. Full of rapture and ecstacy. Though the translation is a bit jerky yet it coveys the central theme of the poem successfully.

3 2 Reply
Ink 17 March 2012

hmm, I'm sure I read a translation of this that flowed heaps better

3 1 Reply
* Sunprincess * 17 March 2014

.....a lovely scene with beautiful imagery...

3 1 Reply

The moon, the shadow Both true friends are When there be none to toast In times when happiness is far.....

2 2 Reply
Hardik Vaidya 17 March 2013

The most brilliant poems I have ever read and it is so refreshing, it brakes all stereotypes, I am humbled beyond words and expression. A man from the orient could write with such sensitivity and such depth, marvellous. Starting with the flowers and then connecting with a jug of wine, leaping to ones shadow as an Independant being and then the moon as a participant, so fresh thinking, so wild, so magnetic, it is ancient in its roots and so modern in its feel, like a young woman, dressed to reveal and yet her eyes conceal.

3 1 Reply
Martin Lara 05 January 2013

Midnight wine- moon shadows dancing tai chi with my wife

1 5 Reply
Esmenio Galera 17 March 2012

I like this poem. It brings me to places where I am alone. Sometimes I drink wine alone, and I enjoyed more when my companions talk on diverse things going to nothing. This is a poem of all times.

4 3 Reply
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Li Po

Li Po

Chu / Kazakhstan
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