Drinking Alone Under the Moon

Drinking Alone Underthe Moon — by Lĭ Bái

(Abdiel's reworking of Li Bai's immortal poem as a Shakespearean-form Sonnet, with the rhyming scheme ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG)

Among the flowers is a pot of wine.
With no-one else here, I pour for myself,
My cup up to the shining moon incline;
My shadow joins this fellowship of health.
The moon, unpractised in the drunkard's art,
Traces my movements with tentative tread,
Yet moon and shadow share in friendship's part
Ere seasons usher Springtime to her bed.
While I sing, the moon lingers lovingly;
The shadow jumps while I dance reelingly.
We share our cheer in sobriety
And after drunkenness part company.
Forever we shall have this freedom, when
Afar off in the heavens we meet again.