A host pours the down-and-out poet a drink and tells him of men who rose late in life. The poem ends
雄鸡一声天下白, 'one crow of the rooster and the whole world turns white with dawn', and
少年心事当拿云, 'a young man's heart should reach for the clouds'.
毛泽东 reworked the first line as
一唱雄鸡天下白 (1950).
