Li Bai and DuFu: China's drunken superstar poets
盛唐李杜：中國的詩酒之魂
10 October 2012 Last updated at 23:06 GMT
By Carrie Gracie
BBCNews, Beijing
China's two favourite poets were born 1,300 years ago, at the beginning of the 8thCentury. The language has changed so little that they remain easy for modern Chinese people to read, and their themes are still relevant today - from friendship, love and landscape to the stench of political corruption.
Kaiser Kuo,a founder of China's first heavy-metal band, is probably one of the very few rock musicians, in any country, who draws inspiration from a poet born in701AD.
郭怡廣是中國首支重金屬樂隊“唐朝”的創(chuàng)始人。也許他是這個世界上為數(shù)不多的可以從公元701年誕生的一位詩人身上得到靈感的搖滾音樂人。
"He was quite a drunkard... and writing some of his bestpoetry apparently, while completely inebriated. You know he's wild andassociated with a kind of unbridled revelry, and yeah that's part of why I lovehim," says Kuo.
郭怡廣：“他可謂酒仙，他的許多佳作都是醉酒之后而成。他有一種狂野和桀驁不馴的氣質，這正是我喜歡他的原因。
”He is talking about Li Bai, a poet born in Central Asia, whobecame a wandering superstar poet in China, known as "the fallenimmortal" or "the immortal of wine".
他所提到的人就是李白，中國的詩壇巨星，有著詩仙酒圣之稱。
China had just emergedfrom isolation, and was falling head over heels in love with foreign culture.Moody and long-haired, the young men named their group Tang Dynasty in tribute to the artistic golden age to which Li Bai belonged.
當時中國剛走出封閉的狀態(tài)，人們瘋狂的追風于外來文化。這位長發(fā)激情的年輕人將自己的樂隊起名“唐朝”，其意中暗指李白所在的那個文化繁榮的盛唐時代。"If you were to grab any kid off the street and ask him,'What was the greatest dynasty in China's history?' nine out of 10 of them would answer the Tang.
“在大街上隨便問一問路人中國歷史上哪個朝代最輝煌？十有八九都會回答唐朝”"Part of the reason they would give was because there was a real ethic of cosmopolitanism. You know, almost a fetish for things foreign during the time," says Kuo.
“有部分原因是，當時是一個真正的多元化時代，人們幾乎對外來事物是狂熱的?！惫f道。"And it was precisely because of this openness, this receptiveness to foreign ideas, including religions like Buddhism, to foreign arts, [that] I think people would understand that a band working in an entirely foreign idiom, calling itself Tang Dynasty, was meant to evoke that same spirit."
“這種開放是非?？少F的，對外來思想的接受，包括佛教到外來藝術。我想人們會理解一個完全西方式的樂隊起名‘唐朝’的意義，這樣做就是希望喚起當時的那種精神?！?/font>Every Chinese person learns poems by Li Bai, and the country's other favourite poet, Du Fu, from childhood.
每一個中國人自孩童時起，都會學習李白和杜甫的詩。
Li Bai looks to the moon - and the bottom of awine glass - for inspiration
"They are as important in Chinese literary history as Shakespeare is to people in Britain," says historian Yuan Haiwang, author of This Is China: The First 5,000 Years.
袁海旺，歷史學者，也是《中國5000年》的作者，這樣評價，”李白在中國文學中的地位就好比英國人眼中的莎士比亞“。"I remember when my son was only a baby held in my arms, I began to teach him some of the poems, like every other parent does, even though of course he couldn't remember all of them. But that's what the Chinese do."
“我記得我的兒子還需要我抱著的時候，我就開始教他唐詩，就像素有的家長一樣；雖然我知道孩子記不住那么多。但中國人都這樣做。”As a Chinese person living in America, far from home, Yuan particularly likes one poem by Li Bai, about the moon:
作為僑居美國的華人，袁特別喜歡李白那首描寫月亮的詩：Moonlight in front of my bed
I took it for frost on the ground
I lift my head, gaze at the mountain moon
Lower it, and think of home.
床前明月光，疑似地上霜。"The moon in China has a special meaning. And when it'sfull, that represents the fullness and reunification of the family," says Yuan. "So that poem struck the deep core of my heart whenever I miss my family."
”月，在中國有著特別的含義，月圓就意味著圓滿以及合家團聚“袁解釋道，"因此這首詩深深觸動了我的思鄉(xiāng)之情。"The moon also symbolises poetry and dreams, so it's fitting that it plays a role in Li Bai's death - the story is that he drowned in a river when he tried to embrace the moon's reflection.
月還是詩與夢的象征。李白的死與月有關，相傳李白因追江中月影而溺死。"He was drunk, presumably," says translator Burton Watson. "He was drunk a good deal of the time."
Portraits of Li Bai often show him in a long white gown, raisinghis wine glass to the moon.
伯頓·華岑說，”也許他醉了。李白經(jīng)常處于半夢半醒的醉態(tài)?！?br>李白的畫像，多是一襲白袍，舉杯對月。
This is thought to be the only survivingcalligraphy of Li Bai
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