Bidding Farewell to Uncle Yun, an Editor of the Government Library, at Xie Tiao Memorial Hall, Xuanzhou

by Li Bai (701 - 762)

Yesterday is gone and irretainable,

Today disturbs me with much to worry about.

Now that the wind is carrying the swan,

To its destination of broad prospects,

It's time to have a beauty drink,

High up in this memorial hall.

Your literary style has its prototype in the Jian'an Age,

Tempered with that of Xie Tiao,

And mine is brisk and vivid.

All are buoyant with fantastic imagination:

Wishing to go up to the sky;

To grasp the bright moon.

To stop flowing water by cutting it with a sword,

Only makes it flow faster;

To relieve melancholy by drinking,

Only makes one feel worse.

If one is tired of life,

He had better dishevel his hair,

And go to pass his days on a tiny boat.