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Li Bai

Li Bai Books

Poet

Li Bai, a renowned Tang Dynasty poet, is known as the 'Sage of Poetry'. His poetry is characterized by its exuberance, freedom, and rich imagination, and has had a profound influence on later generations. His representative works include 'To Drink More Wine', 'Song of Lushan Mountain', etc.

Lustra of Ezra Pound, with Earlier Poems

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The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet

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The selected poems

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Related Quotes

“LONG YEARNING Long yearning, To be in Chang'an. The grasshoppers weave their autumn song by the golden railing of the well; Frost coalesces on my bamboo mat, changing its colour with cold. My lonely lamp is not bright, I’d like to end these thoughts; I roll back the hanging, gaze at the moon, and long sigh in vain. The beautiful person's like a flower beyond the edge of the clouds. Above is the black night of heaven's height; Below is the green water billowing on. The sky is long, the road is far, bitter flies my spirit; The spirit I dream can't get through, the mountain pass is hard. Long yearning, Breaks my heart.”

Poetry Heartbreak Chinese Yearning

Author:Li Bai

“CROWS CALLING AT NIGHT Yellow clouds beside the walls; crows roosting near. Flying back, they caw, caw; calling in the boughs. In the loom she weaves brocade, the Qin river girl. Made of emerald yarn like mist, the window hides her words. She stops the shuttle, sorrowful, and thinks of the distant man. She stays alone in the lonely room, her tears just like the rain.”

Poetry Sadness Chinese Crows

Author:Li Bai

“THOUGHTS ON A STILL NIGHT Before my bed, the moon is shining bright, I think that it is frost upon the ground. I raise my head and look at the bright moon, I lower my head and think of home.”

Home Poetry Night Moon Thoughts Chinese

Author:Li Bai

“HEARING A FLUTE ON A SPRING NIGHT IN LUOYANG From whose home secretly flies the sound of a jade flute? It's lost amid the spring wind which fills Luoyang city. In the middle of this nocturne I remember the snapped willow, What person would not start to think of home!”

Poetry Song Chinese Flute

Author:Li Bai

“AUTUMN AIR The autumn air is clear, The autumn moon is bright. Fallen leaves gather and scatter, The jackdaw perches and starts anew. We think of each other- when will we meet? This hour, this night, my feelings are hard.”

Poetry Moon Longing Chinese Autumn

Author:Li Bai

“SEEING OFF A FRIEND Green hills above the northern wall, White water winding east of the city. On this spot our single act of parting, The lonely tumbleweed journeys ten thousand li. Drifting clouds echo the traveller's thoughts, The setting sun reflects my old friend's feelings. You wave your hand and set off from this place, Your horse whinnies as it leaves.”

Earth Poetry Friendship Chinese Goodbye

Author:Li Bai

“SEEING OFF MENF HAORAN FOR GUANLING AT YELLOW CRANE TOWER My old friend's said goodbye to the west, here at Yellow Crane Tower, In the third month's cloud of willow blossoms, he's going down to Yangzhou. The lonely sail is a distant shadow, on the edge of a blue emptiness, All I see is the Yangtze River flow to the far horizon.”

Earth Poetry Chinese Goodbye

Author:Li Bai

“處世若大夢，胡爲勞其生？”

Love Life Art Reality Dreams Tale

Author:Li Bai

“Now let you and me buy wine today! Why say we have not the price? My horse spotted with five flowers, My fur-coat worth a thousand pieces of gold, These I will take out, and call my boy To barter them for sweet wine. And with you twain, let me forget The sorrow of ten thousand ages!”

Age Today Forget Boys Five Pieces Sweet Flower Sorrow Thousand Ten Gold Let Me Horse Wine Coats Fur My Boys Fur Coats Sweet Wine

Author:Li Bai

“All the birds have flown up and gone; A lonely cloud floats leisurely by. We never tire of looking at each other - Only the mountain and I.”

Gone Mountain Bird Lonely Clouds Tire Floats

Author:Li Bai

“From the walls of Baidi high in the coloured dawn To Jiangling by night-fall is three hundred miles, Yet monkeys are still calling on both banks behind me To my boat these ten thousand mountains away.”

Stills Night Fall Three Behinds Wall Calling Thousand Ten Mountain Hundred Miles Boat Dawn Monkeys

Author:Li Bai

“Shade and light are different in every valley.”

Different Light Openness Shade Valleys

Author:Li Bai

“In a universe animated by the interaction of yin (female) and yang (male) energies, the moon was literally yin visible. Indeed, it was the very germ or source of yin, and the sun was its yang counterpart.”

Universe Energy Sun Source Moon Female Males Visible Interaction Animated Germs Counterparts Yang

Book:The selected poems

Source: The selected poems

“In the battlefield men grapple each other and die; The horses of the vanquished utter lamentable cries to heaven, While ravens and kites peck at human entrails, Carry them up in their flight, and hang them on the branches of dead trees.”

Men Humans Dies Heaven Tree Cry Horse Flight Branches Veteran Battlefields Ravens Veterans Day Kites Dead Trees

Author:Li Bai

“To find pleasure in life, make the most of the spring.”

Pleasure Spring

Author:Li Bai

“The living is a passing traveler; The dead, a man come home.”

Men Home Passing Passings Coming Home Traveler

Book:The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet

Source: The Works of Li Po, the Chinese Poet

“I am asked why I live in the green mountains; I smile but reply not, for my heart is at rest. The flowing waters carry the image of the peach blossoms far, far away; there is an earth, there is a heaven, unknown to men.”

Men Heart Earth Heaven Water My Heart Mountain Green Far Away I Smile Peaches Flowing Water Peach Blossoms

Author:Li Bai

“Growing older, I love only quietness: who need be concerned with the things of this world? Looking back, what better plan than this: returning to the grove.”

World Needs Growing Plans This World Concerned Looking Back Growing Old Quietness Growing Older Grove

Author:Li Bai

“From some home a jade flute sends dark notes drifting, Scattering on the spring wind that fills Lo-yang. Tonight, if we should hear the willow-breaking song, Who could help but long for the gardens of home?”

Ifs Should Long Helping Home Song Dark Wind Spring Garden Notes Tonight April Springtime Drifting Flutes Yang Jade

Author:Li Bai

“You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain; I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care. As the peach-blossom flows down stream and is gone into the unknown, I have a world apart that is not among men.”

Men World Heart Care Asks Gone My Heart Mountain Spring Flow Green Ask Me Streams March Springtime I Smile Peaches Worlds Apart Peach Blossoms

Author:Li Bai

“The birds have vanished into the sky, and now the last cloud drains away. We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains.”

Together Lasts Sky Mountain Mindfulness Bird Garden Remains Clouds Drains

Author:Li Bai

“The paired butterflies are already yellow with August Over the grass in the West garden; They hurt me. I grow older.”

Age Grows Hurt Garden West Grass Yellow Butterfly August Hurt Me

Book:Lustra of Ezra Pound, with Earlier Poems

Source: Lustra of Ezra Pound, with Earlier Poems

“Gently I stir a white feather fan, With open shirt sitting in a green wood. I take off my cap and hang it on a jutting stone; A wind from the pine-tree trickles on my bare head.”

White Tree Fans Wind Summer Sitting Stones Green Woods Shirts Feathers Caps August Pine Trees

Author:Li Bai

“Since Life is but a Dream, Why toil to no avail?”

Dream Life Is Toil

Author:Li Bai

“Beneath the blossoms with a pot of wine, No friends at hand, so I poured alone; I raised my cup to invite the moon, Turned to my shadow, and we became three.”

Hands Three Moon Shadow Wine Raised Cups Pot Invites No Friends

Author:Li Bai

“Forever and forever and forever”

Forever Dharma Bums

Book:Lustra of Ezra Pound, with Earlier Poems

Source: Lustra of Ezra Pound, with Earlier Poems

“Heaven is high, Earth Wide. Bitter between them flies my sorrow.”

Earth Heaven Sorrow Wide Bitter Bitterness

Author:Li Bai

“Bears, dragons, tempestuous on mountain and river, Startle the forest and make the heights tremble. Clouds darken beneath the darkness of rain, streams pale with a pallor of mist. The gods of Thunder and Lightning Shatter the whole range.”

Whole Darkness Bears Mountain Spring Rain Rivers Winter Clouds Forests Range Height Streams Dragons Taoism Pale Lightning Thunder Mist Thunder And Lightning

Author:Li Bai

“The autumn air is clear, The autumn moon is bright. Fallen leaves gather and scatter, The jackdaw perches and starts anew. We think of each other- when will we meet? This hour, this night, my feelings are hard.”

Thinking Hard Feelings Night Hours Clear Air Moon Fallen Autumn December Starting Anew Fallen Leaves

Author:Li Bai

“You ask why I make my home n the mountain forest, and I smile, and am silent, and even my soul remains quiet: it lives in the other world which no one owns. The peach trees blossom, The water flows.”

World Soul Home Asks Water Tree Quiet Mountain Flow Remains Silent Forests My Soul Other Worlds I Smile Peaches

Author:Li Bai

“I bow in reverence to the white cloud.”

Nature White Clouds Reverence Bows White Clouds

Author:Li Bai

“To wash and rinse our souls of their age-old sorrows,We drained a hundred jugs of wine.A splendid night it was . . . .In the clear moonlight we were loath to go to bed,But at last drunkenness overtook us;And we laid ourselves down on the empty mountain,The earth for pillow, and the great heaven for coverlet”

Soul Age Earth Lasts Night Heaven Clear Sorrow Bed Mountain Hundred Empty Wine Splendid Moonlight Pillow Drunkenness Drained Jugs

Author:Li Bai

“The world is like a great empty dream. Why should one toil away one's life?”

World Should Dream Empty Toil

Author:Li Bai

About the Author

Born: 701
Died: 762
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 33

Related Topics

Mountain Chinese Poetry Earth Moon Clouds Heaven Home Men Night

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Lustra of Ezra Pound, with Earlier PoemsRelated source material

The Works of Li Po, the Chinese PoetRelated source material

The selected poemsRelated source material

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