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Li Bai Quotes

700–760 China

Li Bai (701–762), also known as Li Po, was a Chinese poet living during the Tang Dynasty. Called the Poet Immortal, Li Bai is often regarded, along with Du Fu, as one of the two greatest poets in China's literary history.

China
Poets

Also known as: Li Po

Random Li Bai quote

16 quotes

Flying waters descending straight three thousand feet,
Till I think the Milky Way has tumbled from the ninth height of Heaven.

Since life is but a dream,
Why toil to no avail?

Oh, but it is high and very dangerous!
Such travelling is harder than scaling the blue sky.

All the birds have flown up and gone;
A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.
We never tire of looking at each other—
Only the mountain and I.

Life in the World is but a big dream;
I will not spoil it by any labour or care.

Her robe is a cloud, her face a flower;
Her balcony, glimmering with the bright spring dew,
Is either the tip of earth's Jade Mountain,
Or a moon-edged roof of paradise.

See how the Yellow River's waters move out of heaven,
Entering the ocean, never to return.

I sat drinking and did not notice the dusk,
Till falling petals filled the folds of my dress.

Enjoy a cup of wine while you're alive!
Do not care if your fame will not survive!

You ask what my soul does away in the sky,
I inwardly smile but I cannot reply;
Like the peach-blossom carried away by the stream,
I soar to a world of which you cannot dream.

Here it is night: I stay at the Summit Temple.
Here I can touch the stars with my hand.
I dare not speak aloud in the silence
For fear of disturbing the dwellers of Heaven.

I will mount a long wind some day and break the heavy waves,
And set my cloudy sail straight and bridge the deep, deep sea.

Leaving at dawn the White Emperor crowned with cloud,
I've sailed a thousand li through Canyons in a day.
With the monkeys' adieus the riverbanks are loud,
My skiff has left ten thousand mountains far away.

You ask me why do I dwell in these green mountains,
But I smile without a reply, only an easy mind.
The river flows away silently, bearing the fallen peach blossoms,
Here is another world, but not the world of men.

Before bed, the bright moon was shining.
Now, I think the ground has a frost covering.
I raise my head … to view the bright moon,
Then I lower my head … and I think of home.

On Mirror Lake outspread for miles and miles,
The lotus lilies in full blossom teem.
In fifth moon Xi Shi gathers them with smiles,
Watchers o'erwhelm the bank of Yuoye Stream.
Her boat turns back without waiting moonrise
To royal house amid amorous sighs.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Li Bai (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.