For I intend to forget, in your company, the cares of eternity.
The wind brings with it the blossoms of the willow, which scent the whole room;
And the beautiful lady who invites us to keep on drinking her wine.
The people of Nan-King are there to bid farewell to their friends,
Who, having to go, have not yet gone.
Ask you of the water that flows to the east,
If it is deeper than is the sorrow of our separation.”
Another poet of a later date used also to give himself up to immoderate drinking. His wife advised him to moderate his passion. He asked for five jugs as the price of this sacrifice, and when he had drunk them he went to sleep. On waking, he asked for five more jugs of wine, and having emptied these, he wrote the following quatrain for his wife:—
“Heaven has created Liou-Ling,
Who cannot live without wine;