Bai Juyi 白居易
poet · official · Tang China · 772–846
A Tang poet and official who wrote nearly three thousand poems in plain words anyone could follow. He and his friend Yuan Zhen exchanged hundreds of poems.
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c. 788 · Said to have been written at about sixteen
Wildfire cannot burn it all away. When the spring wind blows, it grows again.
野火燒不盡，春風吹又生。"Grass on the Ancient Plain: A Farewell," in the Complete Tang Poems
c. 807 · As a county official, on seeing farmers cutting wheat under the blazing sun and a woman who, having lost her field to taxes, was gleaning the fallen ears
And I, today, by what merit or virtue have I never once worked at farming or silk? My official salary is three hundred bushels, and at the year's end I have grain to spare. When I think of it I am secretly ashamed, and all day long I cannot forget it.
今我何功德，曾不事農桑。
吏祿三百石，歲晏有餘糧。
念此私自媿盡日不能忘。"Watching the Wheat Harvest"
809 · After his friend Yuan Zhen had left on a mission, on an outing to Ci'en Temple in Chang'an
In blossom time we drank together to break the sorrow of spring, and, drunk, snapped off flowering twigs to keep count of the cups. Suddenly I thought of my old friend, gone to the edge of the sky. Counting the stages, today he should reach Liangzhou.
花時同醉破春愁，醉折花枝當酒籌。
忽憶故人天際去，計程今日到涼州。"Drunk with Li the Eleventh, Thinking of Yuan the Ninth"
early 9th century
There is office to be had, and I am too lazy to apply. I have fields, and am too lazy to farm them. The roof leaks, and I am too lazy to mend it. My clothes are torn, and I am too lazy to sew. I have wine, and am too lazy to pour it, which is the same as a jar always empty.
有官慵不選，有田慵不農。
屋穿慵不葺，衣裂慵不縫。
有酒慵不酌，無異尊常空。"On Laziness," in the Complete Tang Poems
815 · On the boat to Jiangzhou, where he had been demoted
I take your scroll of poems and read it by the lamp. The poems are finished, the lamp is low, and it is not yet dawn. My eyes ache; I put out the lamp and still sit in the dark, to the sound of waves, driven by a head wind, beating on the boat.
把君詩卷燈前讀，詩盡燈殘天未明。
眼痛滅燈猶闇坐，逆風吹浪打船聲。"Reading Yuan Zhen's Poems on a Boat," in the Complete Tang Poems
early 9th century · Of a pair of swallows whose grown brood has flown. Old Liu, grieving that his children had left him, is said to have left his own parents when he was young
Swallows, swallows, do not grieve. Turn back and think of yourselves: think of the days when you were fledglings and flew off high, turning your backs on your mother. What your parents felt then you will know today.
燕燕爾勿悲，爾當返自思。
思爾爲雛日，高飛背母時。
當時父母念，今日爾應知。"The Swallows: A Poem Shown to Old Mr. Liu," in the Complete Tang Poems
c. 817
Green foam on the new unstrained wine, a little stove of red clay. Evening comes and the sky looks like snow. Could you drink a cup with me?
綠螘新醅酒，紅泥小火壚。
晚來天欲雪，能飲一杯無。"A Question for Liu the Nineteenth," in the Complete Tang Poems
817
In the world below, by the fourth month, the blossoms are all gone; at the mountain temple the peach trees are only now in full flower. I had long grieved that spring leaves and cannot be found: I never knew it had moved in here.
人間四月芳菲盡，山寺桃花始盛開。
長恨春歸無覓處，不知轉入此中來。"Peach Blossoms at Dalin Temple," in the Complete Tang Poems
826 · On first meeting Liu Yuxi at a banquet in Yangzhou, as he came back from twenty-three years of exile
I raise my eyes and the view is always lonely. A court full of offices, and you alone left to waste your years. I know that talent and a name must be bent for it, but twenty-three years is too much bending.
舉眼風光長寂寞，滿朝官職獨蹉跎。
亦知合被才名折，二十三年折太多。"Drunk, Presented to Prefect Liu the Twenty-Eighth"
c. 829
What is there to fight over on the horn of a snail? We lodge this body in the flash of a flint spark. Rich or poor, take it as it comes and be merry: the one who does not open his mouth and laugh is the fool.
蝸牛角上爭何事，石火光中寄此身。
隨富隨貧且歡樂，不開口笑是癡人。"Facing the Wine," in the Complete Tang Poems
late 830s · To Liu Yuxi, a friend born the same year, when both were past sixty and living in Luoyang
You and I have both grown old. I ask myself what old age is like. My eyes are dry, so I lie down early; my head is lazy, and goes uncombed at dawn. Now and then I go out on a stick; whole days I sit behind a shut gate. I am slow to look in a new-polished mirror, and leave small-print books alone. My feeling for old friends grows deeper; my path drifts apart from the young. Only the pleasure of idle talk: when we meet there is still plenty of that.
與君俱老也，自問老何如。
眼澀夜先臥，頭慵朝未梳。
有時扶杖出，盡日閉門居。
嬾照新磨鏡，休看小字書。
情於故人重，迹共少年疎。
唯是閑談興，相逢尚有餘。"On Old Age, for Mengde," in the Complete Tang Poems
late 830s · To his friend Liu Yuxi
The day before yesterday we drank at your house; yesterday, the feast at the Wangs'. Today you stop at my cottage: three meetings in three days. When there is singing, let us sing freely; over the wine, let us urge each other on. Drain a cup for me, and I will make three wishes with you. First, that the world be at peace; second, that our bodies stay strong; third, that here at the end of old age I may see you often.
前日君家飲，昨日王家宴。
今日過我廬，三日三會面。
當歌聊自放，對酒交相勸。
爲我盡一杯，與君發三願。
一願世清平，二願身強健。
三願臨老頭，數與君相見。"For Mengde," in the Complete Tang Poems
840 · Nine years after Yuan Zhen died
You lie buried under the springs, your bones dissolving in the mud. I lodge among the living, my head covered with snow.
君埋泉下泥銷骨，我寄人間雪滿頭。"Dreaming of Weizhi," in the Complete Tang Poems
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