Classic Poem

Fifteenth night of the mid-autumn month,
a full moon in front of the eaves:
peering into the cup abruptly I stop drinking,
recalling companions of past times;
those who are one with me in heart,
Ts'ui and Ch'ien far far away;
friends with whom I can forget outside things,
Li and Yüan, both so distant;
some soaring over the blue clouds,
some thrust aside among rivers and lakes.
It's three or four years
since we've seen each other.
I have no magic to shrink up the earth,
you're not immortals who ride the wind—
how can the four of you journey here
to chat with me under this bright moon?
A fine night is hard to come by,
prospects for our happy reunion are dim,
and the bright moon—it too will not linger,
but bit by bit sinks in the southwest sky.
Surely we'll meet again sometime—
only too bad it couldn't be in a setting like this!