Du Fu

杜甫 (Du Fu)

"By my seventh year my thoughts were already bold;

With my opening notes I sang of the phoenix. By my ninth year I wrote large characters; My compositions quite filled a bag. In the past in my fourteenth or fifteenth year I went out into the arena of brush and ink. Those followers of "this culture," Ts'ui and Wei, Thought me to be like Pan and Yang. My nature was spirited; already I was fond of wine; I hated evil and maintained unyielding feelings. I abandoned those of my own age, And associated always with the old. Elated with drinking, I gazed on the Eight Limits, White common objects all became vague.