Li Bai drinks alone

No. 2: the bluster

Drinking Alone in the Moonlight (2)

Li Bai

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If the heavens did not love wine, there would be no Wine Constellation.

If the earth did not love wine, why Wine Springs? There'd be no such location.

The heavens and earth love wine; to love wine deserves no condemnation.

We know that clarity is purity; they say cloudy wine is “chaste.”

When purity and chastity come in bottles, we need not trouble the saints.

Three cups to perceive great wisdom; a pitcher to be one with the Way.

But enjoy your enlightenment drunk; it is not for the sober to say.

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This great series of drinking poems by Li Bai (701-762) includes two that perfectly embody the ambivalence and irony that define his style. The second poem, however, contains no such complexity; and in fact, more than one critic has doubted whether Li Bai really wrote this entry in the series. Thematically, it is much simpler than the other three: where they express deep ambivalence and self-examination, this poem uses a rollicking series of puns to very earnestly argue that drinking is great.

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李白  月下独酌 其二

天若不爱酒，酒星不在天。

地若不爱酒，地应无酒泉。

天地既爱酒，爱酒不愧天。

已闻清比圣，复道浊如贤。

贤圣既已饮，何必求神仙。

三杯通大道，一斗合自然。

但得酒中趣，勿为醒者传。