English中文
The Moon over the West River: Diverting My Mood
醉里且贪欢笑，
要愁那得工夫。
近来始觉古人书，
信著全无是处。
Drunk, let me have my fill of laughter—how should I find the time for sorrow? Of late I have come to see that the books of the ancients, taken wholly on trust, have nothing right in them at all.
昨夜松边醉倒，
问松我醉何如。
只疑松动要来扶，
以手推松曰“去！
”
Last night I fell down drunk beside a pine; I asked the pine how drunk I was. I only fancied the pine was swaying, about to come and help me up—so with my hand I pushed the pine and said, 'Away with you!'
Reading notes
那得 means “how could there be”; 那 is read nǎ. 著 is written 着 in other editions and is read with a neutral tone, zhe. The speaker humorously imagines a pine tree coming to steady him.