Li Bai is widely recognized as one of the greatest poets in Chinese history.
山中问答
问余[1]何意栖碧山，
笑而不答心自闲。
桃花流水窅然[2]去，
别有天地非人间[3]。
公元753年，李白曾在湖北省安陆市的碧山隐居读书，这首七言绝句可能是那时写的。第一句问得突兀，第二句以不答为答，显得轻松愉快、悠闲自得。第三句再写自然景象，表明心如桃花流水，悠然远去，可见诗人热爱自由。第四句“别有天地非人间”，可见诗人热爱自然超过尘世。后来南唐李煜的名句“流水落花春去也，天上人间”，可能得益于李白。但是白诗淡远，煜词沉痛，真是一个天上，一个人间了。
注释：
[1]余：我，诗人自指。
[2]窅（yǎo）然：幽深遥远的样子。
[3]非人间：这里指诗人的隐居生活。
A Dialogue in the Mountain
I dwell among green hills and someone asks me why,
My mind carefree,I smile and give him no reply.
Peach blossoms fallen on running water pass by,
This is an earthly paradise beneath the sky.
In 753 AD, Li Bai lived in seclusion in Bishan, Anlu City, Hubei Province, and studied. This seven-character quatrain may have been written at that time. The first sentence is abrupt, and the second sentence is an answer without answering, which seems relaxed, happy, and leisurely. The third sentence describes the natural scene again, indicating that the heart is like peach blossoms and flowing water, leisurely and far away, which shows that the poet loves freedom. The fourth sentence “There is another world that is not the human world” shows that the poet loves nature more than the world. Later, Li Yu of the Southern Tang Dynasty wrote the famous sentence “Flowing water, falling flowers, spring is gone, heaven and earth”, which may have benefited from Li Bai. But Bai’s poems are light and distant, and Yu’s lyrics are sad, which is really one heaven and one world.
