Drinking Alone by Moonlight (Li Bai)

 A cup of wine under the flowering trees;

I drink alone, for no friend is near.

Raising my cup, I beckon the bright moon,

For he, with my shadow, will make three men.

The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine;

Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side.

Yet with the moon as my friend and the shadow as slave,

I must make merry before the Spring is spent.

To the songs I sing, the moon flickers her beams,

In the dance I weave, my shadow tangles and breaks.

While we were sober, three shared the fun;

Now we are drunk, each goes his way.

May we long share our odd, inanimate feast,

And meet at last on the Cloudy River of the sky.

. . .

Li Bai (Li Po, Li Pai) (701-762) Tang Dynasty Chinese Poet

Poem taken from:

Cousineau, Phil (editor). Burning the Midnight Oil: Illuminating Words for the Long Night's Journey into Day. Viva Editions, 2013.