Li Bai

701-761

Source: Zhou Tiehai prints

Li Bai is regarded as China's greatest poet. His friend the Confucian Du Fu is said to have been the greatest mortal poet. Li, however, rose to the ranks of the Taoist immortals as the god of poetry. An irreverant and spontaneous bon vivant, Li blurred the line between Taoist master and hedonistic drunkard. His style is free, romantic and exaggerative. He is said to have drowned while trying to embrace the moon's reflection in a river while drunk.

Zazen on the Mountain

The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.

Translated by Sam Hamill
Taken from A Drifting Boat, edited by J.P. Seaton and Dennis Maloney.