Li Bai
interpretations
Thoughts on a Still Night
Li Bai
Bed before bright moon shine
Think be ground on frost
Raise head view bright moon
Lower head think home
Before my bed, the moon is shining bright,
I think that it is frost upon the ground.
I raise my head and look at the bright moon,
I lower my head and think of home.
The moonlight shines upon the ground
where I make my bed
I think frost coats the ground
but I cannot feel it
I raise my head to the moon
it is bright and cold and silent
I lower my gaze to the cold ground
I think of home
now gone
Ancient Air (39)
Li Bai
Climb high gaze four seas
Heaven earth how vast vast
Frost blanket crowd thing autumn
Wind blow big desert cold
Magnificent east flow water
10,000 thing all billow
White sun cover elapse brilliance
Float cloud without certain end
Wutong nest swallow sparrow
Thorn jujube perch yuan luan
Moreover again return go come
Sword sing travel road difficult
I climb up high and look on the four seas,
Heaven and earth spreading out so far.
Frost blankets all the stuff of autumn,
The wind blows with the great desert’s cold.
The eastward-flowing water is immense,
All the ten thousand things billow.
The white sun’s passing brightness fades,
Floating clouds seem to have no end.
Swallows and sparrows nest in the wutong tree,
Yuan and luan birds perch among jujube thorns.
Now it’s time to head on back again,
I flick my sword and sing Taking the Hard Road.
I climb the high mount
the land is so vast
the sky stretching onward
the heavens and earth crashing together
in far off horizon
the frost grows
crowding out the last of autumn’s things
the wind turns the desert cold
as it billows out over the sea
that stretches toward the rising sun
the sun that far outshines all else
until it fades as it leaves the day
but the patchwork clouds remain
floating high above the sparrow’s nest
which rests in Wutong tree
one day I will return
but for now I must go
down the hard road
traveling with sword raised
and voice
in song
uplifted
Amusing myself
Face wine not aware get dark
Fall flower fill my clothes
Drunk stand step stream moon
Bird far person also few
Facing my wine, I did not see the dusk,
Falling blossoms have filled the folds of my clothes.
Drunk, I rise and approach the moon in the stream,
Birds are far off, people too are few.
I turn my face away from my wine
but the dark has caught me unaware
I look to the moon
drunk on light
I step forward
into liquid night
bright with the moon’s face
where clothes float
among the petals
the birds have flown far
and the people have become few
The City of choan
登金陵鳳凰台
鳳凰台上鳳凰游，鳳去台空江自流。
吳宮花草埋幽徑，晉代衣冠成古丘。
三山半落青天外，二水中分白鷺洲。
總為浮雲能蔽日，長安不見使人愁。
-https://genius.com/Ezra-pound-the-city-of-choan-annotated-
Deng Jinling Phoenix Station.
Phoenix on the stage Phoenix tour, Phoenix went to the Taikong River self-flow.
Wu Palace flowers and grass buried the path, Jin Dynasty clothing crown into ancient hills.
Three mountains and a half fall in the green sky, two water divided into baizhou.
Always for floating clouds can cover the day, Chang’an does not see people sad.
-google translate-
The phoenix are at play on their terrace.
The phoenix are gone, the river flows on alone.
Flowers and grass
Cover over the dark path
where lay the dynastic house of the Go.
The bright cloths and bright caps of Shin
Are now the base of old hills.
The Three Mountains fall through the far heaven,
The isle of White Heron
splits the two streams apart.
Now the high clouds cover the sun
And I can not see Choan afar
And I am sad.
-Ezra Pound Translation-
Were once danced the phoenix
only a river remains
the gardens they once watched are overcome with grass
and their treasures
lay among the weed.
The mountains that once stood guard
have into slumber fallen
and the island where the herons perched
lies forgotten in the stream.
The clouds have risen up
to shield this once treasured land
from view
and leave us
to grieve.
