Li Bai (701–762), also known as Li Po, was a Chinese poet living during the Tang Dynasty.
戏赠杜甫
饭颗山[1]头逢杜甫，
头戴笠子日卓午[2]。
借问别来太瘦生[3]，
总为[4]从前作诗苦[5]。
李白赠杜甫的诗现存三首：一首是《鲁郡东石门送杜二甫》，名句如“秋波落泗水，海色明徂徕”，主要写二人的交游；一首是《沙丘城下寄杜甫》，名句如“思君若汶水，浩荡寄南征”，主要写二人的交情，但都没有写出杜甫的特征。这首《戏赠杜甫》虽只短短四句，但却语言生动，使人如见烈日之下头戴竹笠形容消瘦的诗人，因为锤炼字句而搜索枯肠的形象，写出了诗人苦吟的精神，和杜甫《饮中八仙歌》描写的李白，形成了鲜明的对比。
注释：
[1]饭颗山：山名。相传在长安一带。
[2]日卓午：指正午太阳当顶。
[3]太瘦生：消瘦、瘦弱。生为语助词，唐时习语。
[4]总为：恐怕是因为。
[5]作诗苦：这里指杜甫一丝不苟的创作精神。
Addressed Humorously to Du Fu
On top of Hill of Boiled Rice I met Du Fu,
Who in the noonday sun wore a hat of bamboo.
Pray,how could you have grown so thin since we did part?
Is it because the verse-composing wrung your heart?
There are three poems that Li Bai presented to Du Fu: one is “Sending Du Erfu at Dongshimen, Lu County”, with famous lines such as “Autumn waves fall on Sishui, the sea is bright in Qulai”, which mainly describes the friendship between the two; the other is “Sending Du Fu under Shaqiu City”, with famous lines such as “I miss you like the Wenshui River, and I send you to Nanzheng with great vigor”, which mainly describes the friendship between the two, but neither of them describes the characteristics of Du Fu. Although this poem “Sending Du Fu to Playfully” is only four short lines, the language is vivid, making people feel as if they can see the poet wearing a bamboo hat under the scorching sun, searching his brain for words, and describing the poet’s spirit of painstaking recitation, which forms a sharp contrast with the Li Bai described in Du Fu’s “Song of the Eight Immortals Drinking”.
