THE WILLOW PATTERN
Li Po
Li Po (701-762 CE) was a native of Sezchaun, China. He left home to live in the
mountains with a religious recluse and then took up the occupation of wandering
poet. Throughout his life he produced an abundance of poems on nature, wine,
friendship, solitude, and the passage of time. He has since become recognized by many as the greatest of the highly talented array of Tang poets. In 742 his poetry found great favour at the imperial court. However, accusations of
malicious satire caused him to retire to the mountains. He later becoming involved in a major revolt and was imprisoned under sentence of death, commuted to perpetual banishment. He was a poet who caught the nuances of the human experience of
nature and of human friendship. Li Po, whose addiction to wine was legendary, is a poet of the spirit, and his verses go deep into the human mind, even going beyond consciousness.I think this is shown in this wonderful poem aptly named;Before the Cask of Wine! Enjoy
Before the Cask of Wine
The spring wind comes from the east and quickly passes,Leaving faint ripples in the wine of the golden bowl.
The flowers fall, flake after flake, myriads together.
You, pretty girl, wine-flushed,
Your rosy face is rosier still.
How long may the peach and plum trees flower
By the green-painted house?
The fleeting light deceives a man,
Brings too soon stumbling age.
Rise and danceIn the westering sun
While the urge of youthful years is yet un-subdued!What avails to lament after one's hair has turned whitelike silken threads?
Throughout his life he produced an abundance of poems on many different subjects—particularly nature, wine, friendship, solitude, and the passage of time. He has since become recognized by many as the greatest of a highly talented array of Tang poets.
He stayed for a few years in various places, travelled extensively, and became for a time one of the Six Idlers of the Bamboo Valley, who celebrated wine and song in the mountains of Chu-lai. All this did not provide a
satisfactory existence for his first wife, who left him with their two children. He appears to have married three times.
Li Po entered the capital, Chang-an, in about 742 and his poetry found great
favour at the imperial court. However, court plotters found a way of
demonstrating that one of his poems was a malicious satire.
Li Po found it prudent to retire to the mountains again, and then wandered around China for about ten years, becoming involved in a major revolt. He was imprisoned under sentence of death, which was commuted to perpetual banishment to the south west region of the empire
He had a strong imagination that was easily set off by music and wine, both of which received praise in his poetry. He became a Taoist and some of his poetry, such as Chuang Tzu And The Butterfly, reflects this. At the same time, he remained a poet who caught the nuances of the human experience of nature and of human friendship. He was a close friend of the poet Du Fu, to whom he addressed the following lines:Chuang Tzu And The Butterfly
Chuang Tzu in dream became a butterfly,
And the butterfly became Chuang Tzu at waking.
Which was the real—the butterfly or the man ?
Who can tell the end of the endless changes of things?The water that flows into the depth of the distant sea
Returns in time to the shallows of a transparent stream.
The man, raising melons outside the green gate of the city,
Was once the Prince of the East Hill.
So must rank and riches vanish.
You know it, still you toil and toil—what for?I would like to thank the web site below for all this amazing information and the poems. I love the two poems I have chosen from the very many more that came from the brush of Li Po. If you ever get the chance to acquire a copy of his works, please don't hesitate to buy it. You will never be sorry for each poem or verse, be it a couple of lines or an epic like "The Ballad of Ch'ang-Kan (sometimes known as the Sailor's Wife.)Just take a tip out of Li Po's book and sit with a glass, or two, of wine in a comfortable part of the garden or sunny room and read your time away.
http://www.humanistictexts.org/LiPo.htm
