Poem #9 and #10: "Parting at a Wine Shop" and "Wind and Rain"

Parting at a Wine-shop in Nan-king
A wind, bringing willow-cotton, sweetens the shop,
And a girl from Wu, pouring wine, urges me to share it.
With my comrades of the city who are here to see me off;
And as each of them drains his cup, I say to him in parting,
Oh, go and ask this river running to the east
If it can travel farther than a friend's love!

Li Po (701-762)

(Nice to imagine this actually occurring…)


(Buuut... sometimes this is more like it)

Wind and Rain
I ponder on the poem of The Precious Dagger.
My road has wound through many years.
... Now yellow leaves are shaken with a gale;
Yet piping and fiddling keep the Blue House merry.
On the surface, I seem to be glad of new people;
But doomed to leave old friends behind me,
I cry out from my heart for Shin-feng wine
To melt away my thousand woes.

Li Shang-yin (812?- 858)