Quotes about drinking
15 real sentences about drinking, left by people who came before us, from c. AD 208 to c. 1911, oldest first. Each one has its source and the original text.
Cao Cao 曹操
c. AD 208 · end of the Later Han, China
Facing the wine, let us sing. How long is a life? It is like the morning dew, and the days gone by are bitterly many. My heart swells with feeling, but the cares are hard to forget. What can undo my sorrow? Only wine.
對酒當歌，人生幾何！
譬如朝露，去日苦多。
慨當以慷，憂思難忘。
何以解憂？唯有杜康。"Short Song"
Otomo no Tabito 大伴旅人
c. 729 · Nara Japan
Rather than brood on things that do no good, better, it seems, to drink a cup of cloudy sake.
験なきものを思はずは一坏の濁れる酒を飲むべくあるらしMan'yoshu, book 3, one of thirteen poems in praise of sake
Li Bai 李白
8th century · Tang China · The Minister of Rites was Zhou Ze of the Han, who is said to have kept ritual abstinence all year round and neglected his wife
Three hundred and sixty days a year, and every day I am drunk as mud. You may be the wife of Li Bai, but how are you better off than the wife of the Minister of Rites?
三百六十日，日日醉如泥。
雖爲李白婦，何異太常妻。"To My Wife," in the Complete Tang Poems
Li Bai 李白
744 · Tang China
Among the flowers, a jug of wine. I pour alone, with no one close. I raise my cup and invite the bright moon; with my shadow, that makes three.
花間一壺酒，獨酌無相親。
舉杯邀明月，對影成三人。"Drinking Alone under the Moon," the first poem, in the Complete Tang Poems
Li Bai 李白
8th century · Tang China
The two of us drink face to face, and the mountain flowers open. One cup, one cup, and one cup more. I am drunk and want to sleep, so you had better go. Tomorrow morning, if you feel like it, come back with your zither.
兩人對酌山花開，一杯一杯復一杯。
我醉欲眠卿且去，明朝有意抱琴來。"Drinking in the Mountains with a Recluse," in the Complete Tang Poems
Du Fu 杜甫
761 · Tang China · The day a visitor came to his thatched house in Chengdu
The flower path has never been swept for a guest. My wicker gate opens today, for the first time, for you. The market is far, so the dishes are plain. The house is poor, so the wine is only an old rough brew. If you are willing to drink with the old man next door, I shall call him over the fence to finish the cups with us.
花徑不曾緣客掃，蓬門今始爲君開。
盤餐市遠無兼味，樽酒家貧只舊醅。
肯與鄰翁相對飲，隔籬呼取盡餘桮。"A Guest Arrives"
Bai Juyi 白居易
c. 817 · Tang China
Green foam on the new unstrained wine, a little stove of red clay. Evening comes and the sky looks like snow. Could you drink a cup with me?
綠螘新醅酒，紅泥小火壚。
晚來天欲雪，能飲一杯無。"A Question for Liu the Nineteenth," in the Complete Tang Poems
Yu Wuling 于武陵
mid-9th century · Tang China
I offer you this golden cup. It is poured full: do not refuse. When flowers open there is much wind and rain. A human life has partings enough.
勸君金屈卮，滿酌不須辭。
花發多風雨，人生足別離。"Offering Wine"
Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修
1046 · Song China · At Chuzhou, where he had been demoted. At thirty-nine he called himself an old man
The old drunkard's mind is not on the wine. It is among the hills and streams.
醉翁之意不在酒，在乎山水之間也。"The Old Drunkard's Pavilion"
Su Shi 蘇軾
1082 · Song China
Drinking at night on the East Slope, I sobered and got drunk again. When I came home it seemed about the third watch. The houseboy's snoring was already like thunder. I knocked at the gate and no one answered, so I leaned on my staff and listened to the river.
夜飲東坡醒復醉，歸來仿佛三更。
家童鼻息已雷鳴。敲門都不應，倚杖聽江聲。To the tune "Immortal by the River": returning to Lingao at night
Omar Khayyam عمر خیام
11th–12th century · Nishapur, Persia
How strangely fast this caravan of life goes by. Catch the moment that passes in joy. Cupbearer, why fret over your friends' tomorrow? Bring the cup, for the night is passing.
این قافله عمر عجب میگذرد
دریاب دمی که با طرب میگذرد
ساقی غم فردای حریفان چه خوری
پیش آر پیاله را که شب میگذردA quatrain (rubai) handed down under Khayyam's name
Li Qingzhao 李清照
c. 1100 · Song China
I often remember that sunset at the pavilion by the stream, so drunk I did not know the way home. The fun spent, I turned the boat back late and strayed deep among the lotus flowers. How to get through, how to get through? I startled up a whole sandbank of gulls and egrets.
常記溪亭日暮，沈醉不知歸路。
興盡晚回舟，誤入藕花深處。
爭渡，爭渡，驚起一灘鷗鷺。To the tune "As in a Dream"
The Archpoet Archipoeta
c. 1163 · Holy Roman Empire
I am resolved to die in a tavern, so that wine may be near my dying lips.
Meum est propositum in taberna mori,
ut sint vina proxima morientis ori."Confession" (Confessio)
Xin Qiji 辛棄疾
late 12th century · Song China
Last night I fell down drunk beside the pine and asked the pine, "How drunk am I?" I thought the pine was moving to come and hold me up, so I pushed it with my hand and said, "Go away!"
昨夜松邊醉倒，問松我醉何如。
只疑松動要來扶，以手推松曰去。To the tune "West River Moon": letting my feelings out
Ishikawa Takuboku 石川啄木
c. 1911 · Meiji Japan
So I have been drinking again today! Knowing all the while how drink turns my stomach.
今日もまた酒のめるかな！
酒のめば
胸のむかつく癖を知りつつ。Tanka collection Sad Toys (Kanashiki gangu)
Read by topic
mindset · the world · memory · humor · learning · love · work · friends · loneliness · aging · longing · pride · writing · home · argument · loss · travel · money · seasons · parting · complaints · food · sleepless · parents · children · cats
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us