Quick Answer: What Happens in Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day?
In *Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day* (春日醉起言志, Chūnrì Zuìqǐ Yánzhì), Li Bai (李白, Lǐ Bái) compares life to a dream and asks why anyone should wear themselves out. His speaker drinks, sleeps by the porch and wakes to birdsong among the flowers. He pours more wine and sings as he waits for the moon.[1]
- The opening: A question about the value of toil leads to a day of drinking.
- The turn: A bird in the flowers brings the speaker’s attention back to the season.
- The ending: As his song finishes, the speaker says he has forgotten his feelings.
The courtyard scene gives the poem a scene in which to hear the change from a question to a song.
After a day of sleep and wine, one bird draws the speaker’s attention out into the courtyard. By the end he has found a voice of his own.
The Poem in Chinese, Pinyin and English
The text follows the received version, in simplified Chinese. Each row groups two five-character lines. The pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation, and the English is a new rendering for this page.[1][2]
| Tionghoa | Pinyin | English |
|---|---|---|
| 处世若大梦，胡为劳其生。 | Chǔ shì ruò dà mèng, hú wéi láo qí shēng. | Life in this world is like a long dream. Why spend it wearing yourself out? |
| 所以终日醉，颓然卧前楹。 | Suǒyǐ zhōng rì zuì, tuírán wò qián yíng. | So I stay drunk the whole day, sprawled beside the front pillars. |
| 觉来盼庭前，一鸟花间鸣。 | Jué lái pàn tíng qián, yī niǎo huā jiān míng. | On waking, I look into the courtyard. One bird calls among the flowers. |
| 借问此何时，春风语流莺。 | Jiè wèn cǐ hé shí, chūn fēng yǔ liú yīng. | May I ask what time this is? The spring wind speaks to the oriole. |
| 感之欲叹息，对酒还自倾。 | Gǎn zhī yù tànxī, duì jiǔ hái zì qīng. | Moved by this, I almost sigh. With wine before me, I pour again. |
| 浩歌待明月，曲尽已忘情。 | Hào gē dài míng yuè, qǔ jìn yǐ wàng qíng. | I sing out while I wait for the bright moon. The song ends and my cares have slipped away. |
Why Li Bai Begins With a Dream
“Like a long dream” is a comparison, with “like” doing real work. The speaker wonders what makes all the effort of living worth the trouble. The next couplet gives his immediate response in a deliberately ungrand image. He has passed the day drinking and ended up slumped near the pillars. The distance between the philosophical question and the slack posture gives the opening its humor.
The poem then lets that posture change. Waking gives the speaker enough interest to look across the courtyard. His eyes and ears become active again before he reaches for another cup.
How the Bird and Wind Tell the Time
The first thing the speaker picks out is one bird among flowers. He asks what time it is, and the next phrase gives him spring wind and an oriole. That answers in the language of a season. The verse gives the season through sound and air. Arthur Waley’s historical translation took the question in a different direction, toward the day’s weather.[1][3]
The question makes sense even if you already know it is spring from the title. The speaker is catching up with the world around him after sleep. In Du Fu’s Spring View, flowers and birds also bring feelings to the surface, against a city marked by war. Here the sounds come from an ordinary courtyard, close enough to hear from the porch.
Du Fu’s Welcome Rain on a Spring Night uses almost inaudible weather to help a reader picture what will happen by morning. Here the bird’s call brings a waking speaker into the present.
What the Final Song Leaves Behind
The bird calls first. By the final couplet the speaker is the one singing, waiting for the moon to appear. Between those two voices comes the impulse to sigh and the small action of filling his cup again. The line about forgetting one’s feelings (忘情, wàngqíng) describes his state after the song. “My cares have slipped away” takes it as a moment of release. The Chinese leaves open exactly what he has forgotten.[1]
The moon has a different role in Li Bai’s Drinking Alone under the Moon, where it becomes a companion. Here it gives the singer something to wait for as the poem ends.
FAQs About Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day
What does the full Chinese title mean?
The Chinese title means roughly “Rising from drunkenness on a spring day and giving voice to my thoughts.” The shorter familiar English title leaves the last action implicit.[1][3]
What kind of bird is singing in the poem?
The first mention says only “one bird.” The following couplet identifies the song with an oriole. The poem gives no further details that would identify a particular species.[1]
Sumber
[1] Li Bai. The received Chinese text of Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day
[2] National Palace Museum. Two ancient poems by Li Bai in the Secret Pavilion model-calligraphy album
[3] Arthur Waley. Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day