A Poem Composed While Traveling Downstream at Night (by Du Fu)

A light breeze stirs
The shoreline's slender grass
Alone on the open water
In a boat with a single mast

The stars hang pendant
And seem on a level
With the earth's broad expanse
And the moon in its vastness
Appears to rise out of the river's
Swift current just ahead

If only fame could be gained
From ink and a brush
Or a sinecure obtained
To provide shelter in sickness
And old age

But instead here I am
Skimming downstream
Proceeding to places unknown
Between Heaven and Earth
Like a sandpiper gliding
Along the water's edge