"Hard Is the Way of the World" III http://wengu.tartarie.com/wg/wengu.php?no=84&l=Tangshi, trans. Witter Bynner
且樂生前一杯酒，何須身後千載名。
“If you don't break your ropes while you're alive, do you think ghosts will do it after?”
“I think the thing to do is to enjoy the ride while you're on it.”
“I don't care if they eat me alive, I've got better things to do than survive.”
“The Vinyl Solution.” in Musician, Player, and Listener 24 (April-May 1980): 34.
Elsewhere
St. 22.
De Profundis (1862)
Context: Whatever's lost, it first was won;
We will not struggle nor impugn.
Perhaps the cup was broken here,
That Heaven's new wine might show more clear.
I praise Thee while my days go on.
“In former days I wanted wine to drink;
The wine this morning fills the cup in vain.”
Second of three poems ("Three Dirges") written by Tao Yuanming in 427, the same year he died at the age of 63, and often read as poems written for his own funeral.
John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau (eds.), Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations (2000), p. 513
Context: In former days I wanted wine to drink;
The wine this morning fills the cup in vain.
I see the spring mead with its floating foam,
And wonder when to taste of it again.
The feast before me lavishly is spread,
My relatives and friends beside me cry.
I wish to speak but lips can shape no voice,
I wish to see but light has left my eye.
I slept of old within the lofty hall,
Amidst wild weeds to rest I now descend.
When once I pass beyond the city gate
I shall return to darkness without end.
“Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?”
Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol 2
(8th February 1823) Medallion Wafers: Hercules and Iole
22nd February 1823) Leander and Hero see The Vow of the Peacock (1835
1st March 1823) An Old Man over the Body of his Son see The Vow of the Peacock (1835
The London Literary Gazette, 1823
