Chinese literature must be incredibly voluminous. We, who have no knowledge of Chinese, have to make do with translations. These come in all kinds; I intend to illlustrate this on the basis of one poem.

Possibly the most famous (at least in the West) of all Chinese poems is the one of Li Bai (Li Po, Li Tai Po, Li Tai Pe) about his drinking together with the moon and his shadow. On my own modest shelf of Chinese literature in translation I found fifteen different versions.

This is the original Chinese poem:

Send other translations to: Henk Lensen
(don't forget to name the translator and the book you found it in)

Up till now, we collected 94 translations in 16 languages.
Contributions submitted by:
Ion Covaci, Blanca Flick, Ursula Gluske-Tibud, Reinhard F. Hahn, Ueli Hasler, Dr. Klara Hurkova, Bernd Jaschke, Jacques Mayoud, Everardo Norões, JP, Marco Polli, Hermann Schulner, Prof. Ernst Schwarz, Eduard J. Verger.