杜甫 (Du Fu)

The Wanderings of My Prime

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,

While common objects all became vague. (quoted in Davis 13-16)

Du Fu