Du Fu 杜甫
poet · Tang China · 712–770
A Tang poet who failed the examinations again and again and wrote as he wandered with his family through years of war. All his life he missed Li Bai, eleven years his elder.
Posts
745 · In the autumn he spent wandering with Li Bai, eleven years his elder
Autumn comes and we look at each other, still tumbleweeds on the wind. We have not made the elixir, and are shamed before Ge Hong. Drinking hard and singing wildly, you pass your days in vain. All that swagger and defiance: for whom is it meant?
秋來相顧尚飄蓬，未就丹砂媿葛洪。
痛飲狂歌空度日，飛揚跋扈爲誰雄。"For Li Bai"
c. 751 · On seeing a column of soldiers being marched off to the front
Carts rumble, horses neigh, and the men marching have bows and arrows at their waists. Fathers, mothers, wives and children run to see them off, and the dust hides the Xianyang Bridge.
車轔轔，馬蕭蕭，行人弓箭各在腰。
耶孃妻子走相送，塵埃不見咸陽橋。"Song of the War Carts"
756 · Held in rebel-occupied Chang'an during the war
Tonight the moon over Fuzhou: she will be watching it alone from her room. Far away, I ache for my little sons and daughters, too young to know to think of Chang'an.
今夜鄜州月，閨中只獨看。
遙憐小兒女，未解憶長安。"Moonlit Night," in the Complete Tang Poems
757
The beacon fires have burned for three months on end. A letter from home is worth ten thousand in gold.
烽火連三月，家書抵萬金。"Spring View," in the Complete Tang Poems
758
Back from court, day after day I pawn my spring clothes, and every day I come home from the riverside thoroughly drunk. Wine debts are an ordinary thing, wherever I go; a life of seventy years has been rare since ancient times.
朝回日日典春衣，每日江頭盡醉歸。
酒債尋常行處有，人生七十古來稀。"Qujiang," second poem, in the Complete Tang Poems
759 · On hearing that Li Bai had been sent into exile
The south of the river is a land of fevers, and from the banished man there is no news. My old friend has come into my dream: he knows how constantly I think of him.
江南瘴癘地，逐客無消息。
故人入我夢，明我長相憶。"Dreaming of Li Bai," the first poem, in the Complete Tang Poems
759
Afraid of the shame of an empty purse, I keep one coin, just to look at.
囊空恐羞澀，留得一錢看。"Empty Purse," in the Complete Tang Poems
759 · Visiting an old friend's house after twenty years
How long does youth last? Our temples have both turned grey. We ask after old friends, and half are ghosts. We cry out, and something burns within.
少壯能幾時，鬢髮各已蒼。
訪舊半爲鬼，驚呼熱中腸。"For the Recluse Wei the Eighth," in the Complete Tang Poems
759 · An autumn of war, his brothers scattered, on the night the season turns to White Dew
From tonight the dew turns white; the moon is brightest over my old home. I have brothers, and all are scattered; there is no home left to ask whether they live or die.
露從今夜白，月是故鄉明。
有弟皆分散，無家問死生。"Thinking of My Brothers on a Moonlit Night," in the Complete Tang Poems
761 · The day a visitor came to his thatched house in Chengdu
The flower path has never been swept for a guest. My wicker gate opens today, for the first time, for you. The market is far, so the dishes are plain. The house is poor, so the wine is only an old rough brew. If you are willing to drink with the old man next door, I shall call him over the fence to finish the cups with us.
花徑不曾緣客掃，蓬門今始爲君開。
盤餐市遠無兼味，樽酒家貧只舊醅。
肯與鄰翁相對飲，隔籬呼取盡餘桮。"A Guest Arrives"
761
A good rain knows its season; it comes just as spring begins. It steals in on the wind by night and wets all things, fine and soundless.
好雨知時節，當春乃發生。
隨風潛入夜，潤物細無聲。"Welcome Rain on a Spring Night," in the Complete Tang Poems
c. 762
When has a traveller's sleep ever come? The autumn sky will not grow light. I roll up the blind: the shadow of a setting moon. My pillow raised, the sound of the far river.
客睡何曾著，秋天不肯明。
卷簾殘月影，高枕遠江聲。"A Traveller's Night," in the Complete Tang Poems
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