There is another world, other than/ this one we choose to live in.
Li Bai, also known by his courtesy name Taibai, was a Chinese poet acclaimed as one of the best and most important poets of the Tang dynasty and of Chinese poetry as a whole. He and friends such as Du Fu were among the leading figures of the Tang flowering often called the "Golden Age of Chinese Poetry."
Around 1,000 poems attributed to him survive. Thirty-four of them appear in the anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems, first published in the 18th century, around the time translations of his work began to appear in Europe. In Ezra Pound's Cathay, 11 of the 19 poems are his. His poems became models for celebrating the pleasures of friendship, the depth of nature, solitude and the joys of drinking.
Around 1,000 poems attributed to him survive. Thirty-four of them appear in the anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems, first published in the 18th century, around the time translations of his work began to appear in Europe. In Ezra Pound's Cathay, 11 of the 19 poems are his. His poems became models for celebrating the pleasures of friendship, the depth of nature, solitude and the joys of drinking.
And sorrows return, though we drown them with wine, Since the world can in no way answer our craving, I will loosen my hair tomorrow and take to a fishingboat.
No one understands now. Those who couldhear a song this deeply vanished long ago.
You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest, and I smile, and am silent, and even my soul remains quiet: it lives in the other worldwhich no one owns. The peach trees blossom, The water flows.
A pity it is evening, yetI do love the water of this springseeing how clear it is, how clean; rays of sunset gleam on it, lighting up its ripples, making itone with those who travelthe roads; I turn and facethe moon; sing it a song, thenlisten to the sound of the windamongst the pines.