My tresses for head-dress
with gay garlands girt,
Carnations arranged
o'er my jacket and skirt!
Then to wander away
in the soft-scented air,
And return by the side
of his Majesty's chair . . .
But the dance and the song
will be o'er by and by,
And we shall dislimn
like the rack in the sky."
As time went on, Li Po fell a victim to intrigue, and left the Court in disgrace. It was then that he wrote—
"My whitening hair would make a long, long rope,
Yet would not fathom all my depth of woe."
After more wanderings and much adventure, he was drowned on a journey, from leaning one night too far over the edge of a boat in a drunken effort to embrace the reflection of the moon. Just previously he had indited the following lines:—
"An arbour of flowers
and a kettle of wine:
Alas! in the bowers
no companion is mine.
Then the moon sheds her rays
on my goblet and me,
And my shadow betrays
we're a party of three.
"Though the moon cannot swallow
her share of the grog,
And my shadow must follow
wherever I jog,—
Yet their friendship I'll borrow
and gaily carouse,
And laugh away sorrow
while spring-time allows.
