Chiang Chin Chiu

by Li Bai

　　in the High Hall Aged men bewailing white locks - In the morning, threads of silk, In the evening flakes of snow. Snatch the joys

　　of life as they come and use them to the full; Do not leave the silver cup idly glinting at the moon. The things that Heaven made

　　Man was meant to use; A thousand guilders scattered to the wind may come back again. Roast mutton and sliced beef will only

　　taste well If you drink with them at one sitting three hundred cups. Great Master Ts'êen, Doctor Tan-ch'iu, Here is wine, do not

　　stop drinking But listen, please, and I will sing you a song. Bells and drums and fine food, what are they to me Who only want

　　to get drunk and never again be sober? The Saints and Sages of old times are all stock and still, Only the might drinkers of wine

　　have left a name behind. When the prince of Ch'êen gave a feast in the Palace of P'ing-lo With twenty thousand gallons of wine

　　he loosed mirth and play. The master of the feast must not cry that his money is all spent; Let him send to the tavern and fetch

　　wine to keep our tankards filled. His five-flower horse and thousand-guilder coat - Let him call the boy to take them along and

　　pawn them for good wine, That drinking together we may drive away the sorrows of a thousand years.

　　Li Po