ChineseStudy

71. Bring on the Wine | Li Bai

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English translation

Do you not see the waters of the Yellow River come down from heaven, racing to the sea and never turning back?

The opening gives time first: water gone is gone. This is the poem's first reason to drink fast.

Do you not see in the bright mirror of the high hall grief over white hair — black silk in the morning, snow by evening?

The second do you not see moves time from water to hair. Between morning and evening, one day is a whole life.

When life goes your way you must enjoy it to the full; do not let the golden cup face the moon empty.

From never turning back and snow by evening come two conclusions, and only now does the poem issue its first command.

Heaven gave me a talent that must be put to use; a thousand pieces of gold spent will come again.

This couplet is the poem's best-known self-affirmation, and also the one that sounds most like talking himself up.

Cook the lamb, butcher the ox, and take our pleasure for now; we ought to drink three hundred cups at a stretch.

For now steps back; ought to steps forward.

Master Cen, Scholar Danqiu — bring on the wine, do not stop.

He calls two men by name, and the poem has its first tablemates. From here on it becomes table talk.

I will sing you a song; turn your ears and listen.

The focus shifts from urging wine to singing. What follows is the lyric of that song.

Bells and drums and fine fare are not worth much; I only want to stay drunk and not wake.

Just after Heaven gave me a talent that must be put to use comes riches are not worth much — two sides of one breath.

The sages and worthies of old are all forgotten; only drinkers keep a name.

This is drunk talk and irony at once. The man saying the sages are forgotten is himself trying to be one.

The Prince of Chen once feasted at Pingle Abbey, a gallon of wine worth ten thousand, giving himself up to jest.

The Prince of Chen is Cao Zhi. Finding an ancient who drank like this is evidence for his own excess.

Why does the host say money is short? Just go buy more and drink with you.

Back from the ancients to the present table. Why say money is short teases the host and puts spent gold comes again into practice.

The piebald horse, the thousand-gold fur — call the boy to take them out and trade them for good wine, and with you dissolve the sorrow of all ages.

The close pawns both horse and fur. What is to be dissolved is the sorrow of all ages, not tonight's, and that makes the tone heavier rather than lighter.

赏析 · Commentary

两个「君不见」定了全诗的调子 · Two Do You Not See Set the Poem's Key

开头两句都用「君不见」领起，一句说黄河的水一去不回，一句说明镜里的头发朝暮变色。两句都不是眼前的事，是被人一直在看、一直被忽略的事。李白把它们摆出来，是为了给后面的「须尽欢」找理由：时间这样过，不喝不行。两个「君不见」也定了全诗的口气——不是劝人，是逼人认账。后面无论怎么放纵，都建立在这两句上，所以「天生我材必有用」听着豪迈，底子其实是这两句的不安。

The first two lines both open on do you not see — one on the Yellow River's water gone for good, one on hair in a bright mirror turning from morning to evening. Neither is a present event; both are things one has always seen and always overlooked. Li Bai sets them out to give the later you must enjoy it to the full a reason: time goes like this, so not drinking is not an option. The two openers also fix the tone — not persuasion but forcing an admission. Whatever excess follows stands on these two lines, so Heaven gave me a talent that must be put to use sounds dashing while resting on their unease.

从劝酒到唱歌，人称忽然换了 · From Urging Wine to Singing: The Address Suddenly Changes

「岑夫子，丹丘生，将进酒，君莫停」开始点名，前面那些感慨忽然有了听众。接着「与君歌一曲」，诗的体裁也跟着变成歌。从此以后，句子更像歌词：钟鼓馔玉、圣贤寂寞、陈王平乐，一段一段，不必用逻辑串起来。「主人何为言少钱」又出现一个第三人称的主语，把吟唱的人推回席上。李白在这些地方不讲究人称统一，读起来却顺，因为整首诗本来就是一顿酒席上的话，席上本来就有人说话、有人唱、有人打趣。

Master Cen, Scholar Danqiu — bring on the wine, do not stop starts naming people, and the reflections before it suddenly have an audience. Then I will sing you a song, and the genre turns to song as well. From there the lines read more like lyric: bells and drums and fine fare, the forgotten sages, the Prince of Chen at Pingle, one passage after another, with no need of logic to link them. Why does the host say money is short brings in a third-person subject again, pushing the singer back to the table. Li Bai does not bother with a consistent addressee here, and it reads smoothly, because the whole poem is talk at a drinking party, and at a party someone talks, someone sings, someone teases.

「万古愁」三个字为什么把前面都压住了 · Why the Sorrow of All Ages Presses Down Everything Before

结尾把五花马和千金裘都拿去换酒，动作已经到底了——能抵的都抵了。可他要销的不是今晚的愁，是「万古愁」。三个字一出来，前面那些豪言、那些劝酒、那匹贵马，全部被归入一个小小的今晚，而愁是万古的。这个结尾因此不是狂欢，是把狂欢之后的东西先说了出来。李白的写法常常这样：把力气用在放纵上，最后一笔轻轻一转，放纵就有了重量。收在这里，酒还没有喝，愁也没有销，诗就停了。

The close trades in the piebald horse and the thousand-gold fur for wine, and the action has gone as far as it can — everything pawnable has been pawned. But what he means to dissolve is not tonight's sorrow but the sorrow of all ages. The moment those words land, all the swagger, all the urging, the costly horse, are filed under one small tonight, while the sorrow is of all ages. So the ending is not revelry; it says in advance what comes after revelry. Li Bai often works this way: spend the energy on excess, then turn the last stroke gently, and the excess gains weight. It stops here, with the wine not yet drunk and the sorrow not dissolved.

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