A Chinese Poem: 自遣. zìqiǎn Amusing Oneself

Somehow, I feel I've heard of English poets the likes of Rudyard Kipling, Geoffrey Chaucer or William Shakespeare first before names like Li Bai, Du Fu and later Xu Zhimo become a familiarity. The fact is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language has been in existence for thousands of years. When the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang 秦始皇 ordered that books be burned, the 诗经 Shi Jing, otherwise known as Classic of Poetry or Book of Songs survived. Since then, many poems had been written and while there are Han poetry, Jian'an poetry, Six Dynasties poetry, Tang poetry, Song poetry, Yuan poetry or Ming poetry to contend with, Chinese poetry can be classified into two primary types, Classical Chinese poetry and Modern Chinese. Here's one, Amusing oneself by Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty. I suppose those days when people don't have smart phones, they just could amuse themselves by drinking and getting drunk...

自遣.                                zìqiǎn

对酒不觉暝，           duì jiǔ bù jiào míng
落花盈我衣。           luò huā yíng wǒ yī      
醉起步溪月，           zuì qǐ bù xī yuè
鸟还人亦稀。           niǎo hái rén yì xī

Facing my wine, I did not see the dusk,
Falling blossoms have filled the folds of my clothes.
Drunk, I rise and approach the moon in the stream,
Birds are far off, people too are few.