Seeing Li Bai in A Dream II
- Poetry of Du Fu

《梦李白·其二》

English Rendering

This cloud, that has drifted all day through the sky,

May, like a wanderer, never come back....

Three nights now I have dreamed of you --

As tender, intimate and real as though I were awake.

And then, abruptly rising to go,

You told me the perils of adventure

By river and lake-the storms, the wrecks,

The fears that are borne on a little boat;

And, here in my doorway, you rubbed your white head

As if there were something puzzling you.

...Our capital teems with officious people,

While you are alone and helpless and poor.

Who says that the heavenly net never fails?

It has brought you ill fortune, old as you are.

...A thousand years' fame, ten thousand years' fame-

What good, when you are dead and gone.

Seeing Li Bai in A Dream II by Du Fu
Seeing Li Bai in A Dream II by Du Fu

Original Text (中文原文)

浮云终日行,游子久不至。

三夜频梦君,情亲见君意。

告归常局促,苦道来不易。

江湖多风波,舟楫恐失坠。

出门搔白首,若负平生志。

冠盖满京华,斯人独憔悴。

孰云网恢恢,将老身反累。

千秋万岁名,寂寞身后事。

Analysis & Context

Five-character-ancient-verse

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