Bring In the Wine! Li He style
A more traditional version
Bring In the Wine Li He In crystal goblets see Amber intensity, The droplet on this spout A jewel of burgundy. Dragon and phoenix flesh, Pearls of fat on the meat, We’re wrapped in tapestry, Inside, it’s heady-sweet. Alligator drum, Dragon flutes play, White teeth sing, Slender waists sway. Even spring’s bright sun Will set, just the same, Peach blossoms will fall Like a crimson rain. So masters, drink! Be drunk! Drink more, for all you’re worth Because the thirstiest Liu Ling Can’t drink when he’s in the earth. 李贺 将进酒 琉璃钟，琥珀浓，小槽酒滴真珠红。 烹龙炮凤玉脂泣，罗屏绣幕围香风。 吹龙笛，击鼍鼓，皓齿歌，细腰舞。 况是青春日将暮，桃花乱落如红雨。 劝君终日酩酊醉，酒不到刘伶坟上土。
Li He (790-816) lived in a generation or two later than Li Bai, but this poem at least is rather simpler than the famous Li Bai version. Li He simply gives a sensuous description of a banquet, and notes that we can’t take our pleasures with us, any more than our money. Liu Ling was a famed drinker from five centuries before.
It’s interesting to compare this work with Li Bai’s, because the comparison highlights just how extreme Li Bai’s devotion to drinking was (an aspect captured remarkably well in the recent animated film). Li He celebrates the wine as part of banquet which includes rich foods, music, and a luxurious setting. Li Bai tells us that the music and food are worthless, and all expensive possessions should be sold off for drink. Li He includes the spectre of death, but only at the end of the poem, and held decorously distant in a reference to a minor figure from ancient history. Li Bai opens his poem by telling his close friends that their hair is white, and their time is never coming back.
Li He’s poem is a lovely, and packed with fine images, but conventional. It never achieved the fame of Li Bai’s because it lacks individual character.
“ Li He’s poem is a lovely, and packed with fine images, but conventional. It never achieved the fame of Li Bai’s because it lacks individual character.”
I’m sorry, but the post was good, the poem was great, but you ended the piece with such disappointing language that it spurred me to comment critically.
A poem, such as Li He’s, you characterize as being “lovely and packed with fine images,” but then attach to it the word “conventional” used as a pejorative.
A conventional poem from any era is usually not packed with fine images and not characterized as being lovely. A conventional poem would have clichéd images and probably wouldn’t be called lovely unless you want to dam it with faint praise
That’s bone number one that I’m picking.
Bone number two is you judging that the poem lacks character.
Maybe better for you to say that you liked Li Bai’s poem better because it has more of the “this or that” that you like, but isn’t it a mischaracterization, probably based on a false assumption, to say that Li He’s poem lacks character: I don’t think it does.
I stand with Li He!!
Nothing can get the blood boiling like poetic misunderstandings.
I’ll drink to that.
The extra character in the final line is an interesting touch. I don't know about 'decorously distant' - it reminds me more of the end of Mozart's musical joke, ending on such a jarring note that you're snapped out of the uncomplicated enjoyment you probably felt a second prior.