Drinking Alone by Moonlight

A pot of wine in the flower garden,
but no friends drink with me.
So I raise my cup to the bright moon
and to my shadow, which makes us three,
but the moon won’t drink
and my shadow just creeps about my heels.
Yet in your company, moon and shadow,
I have a wild time till spring dies out.
I sing and the moon shudders.
My shadow staggers when I dance.
We have our fun while I can stand
then drift apart when I fall asleep.
Let’s share this empty journey often
and meet again in the milky river of stars.

—

Tony Barnstone, Willis Barnstone, Chou Ping, in: Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping, The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry, New York, 2005, p. 121