When life's flowing on in a full steady tide?
Come, let us be merry with those that we love;
For pleasure in measure there's no one to chide."
Translated by W. A. P. M.
BRIDGE AT HANGCHOW.
But this Chinese drinking-song, which could without exciting any special comment appear upon a New Year's card of to-day, was published in the Chinese Book of Odes 500 B.C. Twelve centuries later we find a decidedly prettier sentiment and finer touch in Li-tao-po, one of China's favourite poets A.D. 720. It is interesting to notice that four of China's poets, Tze-ma-hsiang-yu, Yang-hsiung, Li-tao-po, and Su-tung-po, were all born and spent their earliest years in Szechuan, on the borderland of Tibet, and the yet unconquered Lolo country, like our own English Border country, China's cradle of legend and song.
This is an attempt to render the best-known ode of China's favourite bard, A.D. 720:
"ON DRINKING ALONE BY MOONLIGHT.