Amidst the flowers
a jug of wine–
I pour alone
lacking companionship,
So raising the cup
I invite the moon,
Then turn to my shadow
which makes three of us.
Because the moon
does not know how to drink
My shadow merely
follows my body.
The moon has brought the shadow
to keep me company a while,
The practice of mirth
should keep pace with spring.
I start a song
and the moon begins to reel,
I rise and dance
and the shadow moves grotesquely.
While I’m still conscious
let’s rejoice with one another,
After I’m drunk
let each one go his way.
Let us bind ourselves for ever
for passionless journeyings.
Let us swear to meet again
far in the Milky Way.

—

William Acker, in: Cyril Birch, Anthology of Chinese Literature from Earliest Times to the Fourteenth Century, Harmondsworth, 1967; p. 246