Drinking Alone to Finish a Poem. (Du Fu)

Here’s a Du Fu poem about the highs and lows of the creative process. First comes the exhilaration of writing a new poem, with help from a bottle of wine, followed almost immediately by sense of dejection upon completion.  How fleeting creative joy can be, especially when it has been induced by alcohol or other intoxicants.  

Drinking Alone to Finish a Poem

The lamplight shimmers

A sense of pure joy 

Here with my dear friend

A bottle of fragrant wine  

Tipsy from its company

I’m alive to the mystery

A new poem takes form

Then a clash of arms

Before my eyes

What’s the use

Of scholarly training now 

Hard is the life 

Of a petty magistrate

In this shameful state

Low my head bows

獨酌成詩

燈花何太喜

酒綠正相親

醉裡從為客

詩成覺有神

兵戈猶在眼

儒術豈謀身

苦被微官縛

低頭愧野人