my teacher has set me the task of aynaliyzing Drinking Alone under the Moon by li bai. I dont really get what it is about! if anyone could help it would be a HUGE favor!

Not one I have read before, but here it is, taken from the Internet (so might have errors):


Drinking Alone Under The Moon

Among the flowers from a pot of wine
I drink alone beneath the bright moonshine.
I raise my cup to invite the moon, who blends
Her light with my shadow and we're three friends.
The moon does not know how to drink her share;
In vain my shadow follows me here and there.
Together with them for the time I stay
And make merry before spring's spend away.
I sing the moon to linger with my song;
My shadow disperses as I dance along.
Sober, we three remain cheerful and gay;
Drunken, we part and each goes his way.
Our friendship will outshine all earthly love;
Next time we'll meet beyond the stars above.


Sonnet length, but not sonnet form.

What's it about? Well clearly on one level it is, as the title says, about someone who is alone, and drinking. Someone with only his shadow and the moon for (imagined) drinking companions. A cheerful fancy.

Is there anything deeper and darker? Do the last three lines imply that the drinker is thinking of doing away with himself? Maybe. Maybe they are intended to expand on the reference to 'merry before' in line 8, and reveal it as an echo of the old saying 'Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die'. But maybe not. They could just be portraying confused thoughts by someone becoming drunk. The rhythmic clumsiness gives that impression.

There's no definitive answer to such a question. If the poem is unclear, it's up to a reader's imagination. What are your thoughts about it, Giovanni?

I don't know whether this poem is a translation from a Chinese original. If it is, that could explain why, though there's a certain charm about the notions expressed, they aren't expressed very well, IMO. The meter starts to go astray in lines 3 and 4, and line 8 is really off the rails. Even if the lines are meant to be read relying on stresses rather than on meter, many of them seem awkward, and lines 4, 8 and 11 have only four stresses when there should be five to match the other lines. Commonplace rhymes are achieved at the expense of rhythm, a common fault among poetic beginners. The last two lines particularly have the ring of something written by a budding primary school poet.

But I don't claim any authority for these views. Others may find more in the poem than I do.

This is the translation from Wikipedia

Amongst the flowers is a pot of wine
I pour alone but with no friend at hand
So I lift the cup to invite the shining moon,
Along with my shadow we become party of three

The moon although understands none of drinking, and
The shadow just follows my body vainly
Still I make the moon and the shadow my company
To enjoy the springtime before too late

The moon lingers while I am singing
The shadow scatters while I am dancing
We cheer in delight when being awake
We separate apart after getting drunk

Forever will we keep this unfettered friendship
Till we meet again far in the Milky Way

[en.wikipedia.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/2021 05:40PM by Linda.

Which translation are you using, Giovanni?

Did Li Bai (Li Po, Li Pai, Li T'ai-po - pick one) intend this to be read as 14 lines of iambic pentameter? Doubtful.

Here are a couple of other attempts to be found on the 'net:

[cscs.umich.edu]

I take my wine jug out among the flowers
to drink alone, without friends.

I raise my cup to entice the moon.
That, and my shadow, makes us three.

But the moon doesn't drink,
and my shadow silently follows.

I will travel with moon and shadow,
happy to the end of spring.

When I sing, the moon dances.
When I dance, my shadow dances, too.

We share life's joys when sober.
Drunk, each goes a separate way.

Constant friends, although we wander,
we'll meet again in the Milky Way.

Li T'ai-po
tr. Hamill

<[www.dpo.uab.edu]>

At least one site I saw said it is written in the 'shih' form:

"It is generally agreed that he and Tu Fu raised in the shih form to its highest level of powerand expressiveness; later poets at times approached but never surpassed them."

And,

"I began working most attentively with texts by four T'ang Dynasty poets, Tu Fu, Wang Wei, Li Po, and Li Ho. Each presented a different worldview. All four worked in the shih form, sometimes referred to by westerners as "the Chinese sonnet." Poems in this form are eight lines long with either five or seven characters in each line. The uneven number of characters can produce either symmetrical lines or a dynamic imbalance. The use of caesurae inside lines set up yet other sets of pairings, at times favoring imbalance, at times requiring strategies for symmetry dependent on combinations of lines. "

So, can we infer the original had 8 lines, with 5-7 (Chinese) characters per line? Seems like it.

With that out of the way, what on earth is Li trying to tell us, and for what reason did he even bother? Is the shih form always a 'nature' song? One where the author is always alone and traveling? Dunno. There could well be such poetic devices as metaphors, similes and zeugma in the original, but I again do not know. Could be the particular sounds used by the author are truly beautiful. Again, I would be guessing.

Still, we are left with the assignment, and have to react in some fashion. Each interpretation leaves us with these impressions:

Speaker is alone
Speaker drinks in a nature setting at night
Speaker invites the moon to come along, thereby creating a shadow
Finally there are three participants
The speaker infers these are sufficient companions for him
The companions may part, but will meet again (after death?)

ianb i'm using your version