Timah, the Malaysian made whiskey is certainly a hot item currently; angering some Muslims since its name sounds Malay and seems to be shortened from the Muslim name Fatimah. Some deemed it insolent, an insult to have the image of a bearded man in a skullcap on the bottle for it suggests a Muslim promoting liquor. While the company clarified that Timah here means tin for that is what the metal is called in Malay; and the bearded man is in fact Captain Speedy, a British officer; a Malay lady lawyer has pointed out that in a Muslim country like Jordan, there is an alcoholic beverage called Abu Nuwas Arak and there is no qualms about having the image of an Arabic man and arabic scripts on its bottle. When I read that Abu Nuwas was a weird drunk poet who lived during the time of the Abbasid Caliphate; I was wondering if famous ancient poet all shared the common love for drinks. Then, I was thinking about the acclaimed Tang dynasty Chinese poet Li Bai 李白 who took traditional Chinese poems to new heights. Li Bai wrote around a thousand poems and thirty-four of them were included in the 18th century anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems. Li Bai loved to drink and this is evident in his poem. His poems do not just celebrate the pleasures of friendship, nature, solitude but the joys of drinking wine as well. Here's his Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring :
處世若大夢, Life in the world is but a big dream;
胡爲勞其生? I will not spoil it by any labour or care.
所以終日醉, so saying, I was drunk all the day,
頹然臥前楹. lying helpless at the porch in front of my door.
覺來盼庭前, when I awoke, I blinked at the garden-lawn;
一鳥花間鳴. a lonely bird was singing amid the flowers.
借問此何時? I asked myself, had the day been wet or fine?
春風語流鶯. the Spring wind was telling the mango-bird.
感之欲嘆息 , moved by its song I soon began to sigh,
對酒還自傾. and, as wine was there, I filled my own cup.
浩歌待明月, wildly singing I waited for the moon to rise;
曲盡已忘情. when my song was over, all my senses had gone.
Comments