Li Bai drinks alone

No. 3: everywhere you go, you always take the weather with you

Drinking Alone in the Moonlight (3)

Li Bai

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It’s April in Xianyang.

The flowers clothe each day in finery.

Who mopes with this to see?

The springtime blues need drink, most urgently!

Success and span of life

Were stitched up long ago by destiny,

So drown such mysteries!

View death and life with equanimity.

Drink takes the world away;

As one by one, we sleep, quite suddenly.

Unconscious of myself;

There is no greater pleasure known to me.

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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 third poem is the greatest: Li Bai realises that his double-edged relationship with the bottle hasn’t changed even in the big city, even in the most joyful season. The loneliness in his drinking came not entirely from circumstance, but also from within himself.

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李白  月下独酌 其三

三月咸阳城，千花昼如锦。

谁能春独愁，对此径须饮。

穷通与修短，造化夙所禀。

一樽齐死生，万事固难审。

醉后失天地，兀然就孤枕。

不知有吾身，此乐最为甚。