Li Po's "The Solitude of Night"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2024

⏱️ 6 minutes

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Summary

Today’s poem is the work of an eighth-century poet whose reputation didn’t peak until the twentieth century. Li Po’s “The Solitude of Night” (translated here by Shigeyoshi Obata) resembles Japanese haiku in its atmospheric brevity and is heavy with the kind of common-to-man melancholy the modernists would feel so deeply more than a millennium later.

A Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty, Li Po (also known as Li Bai, Li Pai, Li T’ai-po, and Li T’ai-pai) was probably born in central Asia and grew up in Sichuan Province. He left home in 725 to wander through the Yangtze River Valley and write poetry. In 742 he was appointed to the Hanlin Academy by Emperor Xuanzong, though he was eventually expelled from court. He then served the Prince of Yun, who led a revolt after the An Lushan Rebellion of 755. Li Bai was arrested for treason; after he was pardoned, he again wandered the Yangtze Valley. He was married four times and was friends with the poet Du Fu.

-bio via Poetry Foundation

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
0:04.0	I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Thursday, March 14th, 2024.
0:09.0	Today's poem is by Li Poe, also known as Li Bai, an 8th century Chinese poet.
0:18.0	Li Poe spent much of his life wandering the Genkese Valley, writing poetry.
0:26.3	After his poetry became widely known, he was briefly appointed to an academic position in the
0:35.5	court of Emperor Wang Zhong, but he was eventually expelled
0:40.2	hum court, which didn't seem to bother him much because he just returned to wandering the
0:46.6	Yankee River Valley and writing poetry. He was also reputedly married four separate times.
0:52.7	So perhaps Lee Poe was just a fellow who didn't make lasting attachments and didn't
0:59.0	like to be tied down.
1:02.9	That comes through in a lot of his poetry, though there is a kind of tension there because
1:09.9	he seems to both not mind or claim that he doesn't mind being alone.
1:17.2	And yet there's a tone of melancholy that undergirds a lot of his writing.
1:22.8	He was rediscovered in the 20th century by poets like Ezra Pound, who appreciated him for the stark
1:33.7	concrete nature of his images and the very conversational style and tone in which he wrote.
1:43.7	Today's poem is typical of that style and it's called
1:47.5	The Solitude of Night. I'll read it once, offer a few comments and then read it one more time.
1:59.0	It was at a wine party.
2:04.2	"'I lay in a drowse, knowing it not.
2:08.1	"'The blown flowers fell and filled my lap.
2:10.7	"'When I arose, still drunken,
2:13.2	"'the birds had all gone to their nests.
	...

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