Above Chengdu in Sichuan, we are building an artificial moon:
more luminous, I understand, than its model
by a factor of eight.
Because in the campaign against all darkness
the orange-glow of street lamps
will not do,
a brighter mirror, or twin, will be ordained
and set against the night sky
in fixed orbit.
Had Li Bai in Sichuan, so many years ago,
composing with wine and moon and shadow
another drink-mate,
had the great Tang emperor,
with an army of eunuchs
the power to give him one,
how much brighter then would his verse have shone?
And because, like Li Bai, we cannot stand
to be alone, or to be sober,
we will drink together beneath both moons.
πολυφλοίσβοιος 