The gold is not sold out just because the restaurant is poor.

If the gold is not sold out, the restaurant will be poor. This means that if the gold is not sold out, the hotel will be poor.

Original text:

"Five Poems on Visiting a Restaurant"

Wang Ji of the Tang Dynasty

There is no big house in Luoyang, and there is no owner in Chang'an.

The gold has not been sold out, but the restaurant is poor.

Drinking for a long time on this day is not about nourishing the spirit.

How can you bear to wake up when you see everyone drunk?

The bamboo leaves are green and the grapes are red.

If we don’t let each other meet, who will be empty after we say goodbye?

As for wine, just know how to drink it, and don’t force it on anyone you meet.

You can sleep by leaning on the stove, and you can sleep by placing a horizontal urn.

If you have a guest, please teach me how to drink. If you don’t have money, don’t sell.

I came here in a long way, and I feel ashamed of being a restaurant owner.

Translation:

There is no big house in Luoyang, and there is no owner in Chang'an.

The gold sales are endless, only for the hotel to be poor.

Drinking a lot of alcohol this day does not care about your temperament.

Seeing everyone drunk, how could I bear to wake up alone.

The bamboo leaves are green with wine lees, and the grapes are red with koji.

Meeting doesn’t mean everything, don’t waste time for anyone.

I only know how to drink wine, but don’t force it on anyone I meet.

You have to sleep by the stove, and a horizontal urn is enough.

If there are customers who need drinking lessons, don’t buy them if you don’t have money.

I came here with a long way to go, and I feel ashamed to be in a hotel.

Wang Ji was born in the late Sui Dynasty and early Tang Dynasty. His character has the aftertaste of the literati of the Six Dynasties, free and easy, bohemian, uninhibited, and of course also addicted to alcohol. People in the Wei and Jin Dynasties were addicted to alcohol because of the darkness of reality, and Wang Ji was probably the same. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and he was forced to retreat to the mountains and forests.

However, in the political era of the early Tang Dynasty, Wang Ji was still frustrated and had a lonely loneliness towards reality, so he adopted a life attitude that was both cynical and chaotic. What is commendable is that his writing style is simple and natural, sweeping away the glitz and glamor since the Six Dynasties, making him unique in the literary world of the early Tang Dynasty.