“Since life is but a dream,
Why toil to no avail?”

— Li Bai

"A Homily on Ideals in Life, Uttered in Springtime on Rising From a Drunken Slumber" (c. 750), in A Golden Treasury of Chinese Poetry: 121 Classical Poems (1976), p. 115
Variant translation by Arthur Waley: "Life in the World is but a big dream; I will not spoil it by any labour or care."

Original

處世若大夢，胡爲勞其生？

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Li Bai 19

Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period 701–762

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