This night to the west of the river-brim
There is not one cloud in the whole blue sky,
As I watch from my deck the autumn moon,
Vainly remembering old General Xie....
I have poems; I can read;
He heard others, but not mine.
...Tomorrow I shall hoist my sail,
With fallen maple-leaves behind me.
牛渚西江夜，青天无片云。
登舟望秋月，空忆谢将军。
余亦能高咏，斯人不可闻。
明朝挂帆席，枫叶落纷纷。
Five-character-regular-verse
Composed during Li Bai's nighttime mooring at Ox-Jaw (Niuzhu), a historic site on the Yangtze associated with the Eastern Jin literati Yuan Hong and General Xie Shang. Legend tells how Xie Shang, moved by Yuan's poetic recitation here, became his patron and launched his career. On this same moonlit autumn night, Li Bai finds no such patron, left only to lament his unrecognized genius through poignant historical analogy.
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