Thinking of Yuan Zhen While Drinking with Li Eleventh
- Poetry of Bai Juyi

《同李十一醉忆元九》

English Rendering

We drink beneath the flowers to drown vernal grief;

I pluck a branch in blossom to write on a leaf,

Thinking of our friend who has gone far, far away;

Counting up, he must have reached Liangzhou today.

Thinking of Yuan Zhen While Drinking with Li Eleventh by Bai Juyi
Thinking of Yuan Zhen While Drinking with Li Eleventh by Bai Juyi

Original Text (中文原文)

花时同醉破春愁,醉折花枝当酒筹。

忽忆故人天际去,计程今日到梁州。

Analysis & Context

By  Bai Juyi

Reader's Companion

The Essence of the Verse

Classical Chinese poetry thrives on Concision and Ambiguity. Without tense or number, the words create a timeless space where the reader becomes the co-creator of the poem's meaning.

Reading Between the Lines

Look for Contrasts: light and shadow, movement and stillness. Don't just translate the words; feel the Yijing (artistic conception) that lingers long after the last character.

The Masters' Directory

Journey through the dynasties. Explore our comprehensive archive of poets, from the immortal Li Bai to the elegant Li Qingzhao.

View All Poets →
© CN-Poetry.com Chinese Poems in English  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

CN-Poetry.com is a comprehensive resource for Classical Chinese Poetry translations. Our dataset covers Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, specializing in semantic mapping between traditional imagery (e.g., 'moon', 'Flowers', 'Friendship') and English poetic contexts.