Drinking Alone Under the Moon / Li Bai, first poem of the Moonlit Drinking Alone group

Li Bai's Drinking Alone Under the Moon: Text, Pinyin, and Translation

Li Bai's Drinking Alone Under the Moon: Text, Pinyin, and Translation with original text, pinyin, a literal rendering, a readable translation, source location, key terms, and a careful modern reading.

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Li Bai Drinking Alone Under the Moon original Chinese pinyin translation meaning

Drinking Alone Under the Moon, Li Bai, first poem of the Moonlit Drinking Alone group: read "花間一壺酒，獨酌無相親。舉杯邀明月，對影成三人。月既不解飲，影徒隨我..." before the English explanation.

Original text

花間一壺酒，獨酌無相親。舉杯邀明月，對影成三人。月既不解飲，影徒隨我身。暫伴月將影，行樂須及春。我歌月徘徊，我舞影零亂。醒時同交歡，醉後各分散。永結無情遊，相期邈雲漢。

Hua jian yi hu jiu, du zhuo wu xiang qin. Ju bei yao ming yue, dui ying cheng san ren. Yue ji bu jie yin, ying tu sui wo shen. Zan ban yue jiang ying, xing le xu ji chun. Wo ge yue pai huai, wo wu ying ling luan. Xing shi tong jiao huan, zui hou ge fen san. Yong jie wu qing you, xiang qi miao yun han.

Literal layer

Among flowers, one pot of wine; drinking alone, with no close companion. I raise the cup and invite the bright moon; facing my shadow, we become three. The moon does not understand drinking, and the shadow merely follows my body. For a while I keep company with moon and shadow; taking joy should reach the spring. I sing and the moon lingers; I dance and the shadow scatters. When awake, we share delight together; after drunkenness, each separates. Forever I will bind a feelingless wandering friendship, and make an appointment far in the Cloudy Han.

Readable layer

Li Bai's Drinking Alone Under the Moon turns solitude into an imagined companionship with moon and shadow, then admits how fragile that companionship is.

Album of painting and calligraphy for Maoshu from The Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access collection — **Album of painting and calligraphy for Maoshu; Various artists; Gift of Julia and John Curtis, 2015; The Metropolitan Museum of Art.**Album of painting and calligraphy for Maoshu is used as a public-domain poem or landscape surface for line-order reading on Li Bai's Drinking Alone Under the Moon. The fit is semantic: the page asks readers to inspect Li Bai, first poem of the Moonlit Drinking Alone group and the term du zhuo, while the image remains illustrative rather than proof of the exact manuscript, author portrait, or historical scene.

Reader focus

What this page helps you decide

Drinking Alone Under the Moon begins with solitude: one pot of wine among flowers and no close companion. Li Bai then creates company by inviting the moon and facing his shadow, making three. But the poem does not pretend the invention is complete. The moon cannot drink, the shadow only follows, and after waking and drunkenness the companions scatter. Its brilliance lies in joy that knows its own loneliness.

Watch du zhuo, ming yue, ying; these terms decide where the literal layer and the readable layer separate.
Compare this page with Quiet Night Thoughts and Du Fu's Moonlit Night before treating moon imagery as one emotion.

The Poem Before Paraphrase

This block uses Drinking Alone Under the Moon, Li Bai, first poem of the Moonlit Drinking Alone group as the anchor, with "花間一壺酒，獨酌無相親。舉杯邀明月，對影成三人。月既不解飲，..." kept in front of the explanation.

Full Poem: The page uses the full first poem rather than only the famous opening. The poem needs its whole arc: loneliness, invented companions, partial play, song and dance, separation, and the strange promise of a feelingless wandering friendship. Without that arc, the poem can look like a simple party under moonlight.

One Pot Among Flowers: Hua jian yi hu jiu gives the setting: flowers and wine. But the next phrase, du zhuo wu xiang qin, makes the scene solitary. The beauty of flowers does not remove loneliness. The opening is powerful because abundance and lack stand together: there is wine and spring, but no close companion.

Inviting The Moon: Ju bei yao ming yue turns drinking into imaginative address. The speaker raises the cup and invites the bright moon. This is not ordinary social company. It is a poetic act that gives the lonely scene a companion large enough to answer the speaker's need, even if the answer remains incomplete.

Images, Sound, And Emotional Turn

Shadow Makes Three: Dui ying cheng san ren completes the famous triangle: speaker, moon, and shadow. The phrase is playful, but it is also fragile. The shadow exists only because the speaker has a body and light. The poem creates company from the very signs of solitude.

Companions That Cannot Drink: The next couplet undercuts the invention. The moon does not understand drinking, and the shadow merely follows the speaker's body. This prevents the poem from becoming fantasy alone. Li Bai lets the imagined friendship stand, then admits its limits. The companion scene is both delightful and knowingly impossible.

Song And Dance: When the speaker sings, the moon lingers; when he dances, the shadow becomes scattered. The poem turns perception into movement. Moon and shadow do not speak back, but they seem to respond through light and motion. This middle section gives the poem its lively surface before separation returns.

Keep the term set visible here: du zhuo, ming yue, ying. The reading changes if one of these terms is translated too smoothly.

Translation Choices To Keep Visible

Awake And Drunk: Xing shi and zui hou divide the experience. When awake, they share delight; after drunkenness, each separates. The poem knows that the company it makes is temporary. Wine, moonlight, and shadow can create a moment of fellowship, but not a stable social world.

Cloudy Han Appointment: The final line reaches toward Yun Han, the Milky Way or cloudy river of heaven. The phrase lifts the poem beyond the garden scene. Yet the friendship is called wu qing you, a feelingless or unfeeling wandering companionship. The ending is cosmic and lonely at the same time.

Li Bai's Drinking Alone Under the Moon Reading Payoff: This page differs from Quiet Night Thoughts because moonlight here creates temporary companions rather than memory of home. It differs from Moonlit Night because Li Bai's poem stays with self-invented company while Du Fu's moon poem imagines a distant spouse. The article gives readers a source-based way to read the poem's joy and loneliness together.

The reading should end in one practical move: Compare this page with Quiet Night Thoughts and Du Fu's Moonlit Night before treating moon imagery as one emotion.

Next reading

Links chosen for reading movement

Li Bai's Quiet Night Thoughts Text, Pinyin, and TranslationFrom Li Bai's Drinking Alone Under the Moon, open Li Bai's Quiet Night Thoughts Text, Pinyin, and Translation to compare du zhuo with a second checked passage; the path starts from Li Bai, first poem of the Moonlit Drinking Alone group, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Du Fu's Moonlit Night Text, Pinyin, and TranslationFrom Li Bai's Drinking Alone Under the Moon, open Du Fu's Moonlit Night Text, Pinyin, and Translation to test the translation boundary against a neighboring source; the path starts from Li Bai, first poem of the Moonlit Drinking Alone group, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Wang Wei's Deer Enclosure Text, Pinyin, and TranslationFrom Li Bai's Drinking Alone Under the Moon, open Wang Wei's Deer Enclosure Text, Pinyin, and Translation to move from this wording to a concrete reader workflow; the path starts from Li Bai, first poem of the Moonlit Drinking Alone group, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Analects Passage on Music And CompletionFrom Li Bai's Drinking Alone Under the Moon, open Analects Passage on Music And Completion to keep the next step tied to source evidence instead of a loose related list; the path starts from Li Bai, first poem of the Moonlit Drinking Alone group, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.