From Exploring Chinese Solo/Small Ensemble Series #5, this is the poem that inspired composer Ying Lee:
Drinking Alone Under the Moon
Among the blossoms waits a jug of wine.
I pour myself a drink, no loved one near.
Raising my cup, I invite the bright moon
and turn to my shadow. We are now three.
But the moon doesn’t understand drinking,
and my shadow follows my body like a slave.
For a time moon and shadow will be my companions,
a passing joy that should last through the spring.
I sing and the moon just wavers in the sky;
I dance and my shadow whips around like mad.
While lucid still, we have such fun together!
But stumbling drunk, each staggers off alone.
Bound forever, relentless we roam:
reunited at last on the distant river of stars.
Bai Li (Tang Dynasty poet)
—translated by David Bowles
April 20, 2014