白居易诗

Poems of Bai Juyi


Index

归田三首

Returning to the Fields - in Three Parts


(评分人数不足)

(There are too few men of judgment.)

其一

Part One

人生何所欲
所欲唯两端

How do we want to spend our lives?
Most want one of two extremes.

中人爱富贵
高士慕神仙

Ordinary people love wealth and honor.
The cultured set their hearts on immortality.

神仙须有籍
富贵亦在天

Immortality is granted to few.
Wealth and honor are also a matter of fate.

莫恋长安道
莫寻方丈山

None of us love our official life.
But none seek the immortal's mountain.

西京尘浩浩
东海浪漫漫

The ancient capital is buried deep in dust.
The eastern sea surges without end.

金门不可入
琪树何由攀

Gates of gold cannot be entered.
Trees of jade cannot be climbed.

不如归山下
如法种春田

Better that we come down off our mountains
And settle into planting fields of spring.

其二

Part Two

种田意已决
决意复何如

My mind had already chosen to plant fields.
I was determined to return, but why?

卖马买犊使
徒步归田庐

I found myself selling a horse, buying a calf,
And returning to the fields on foot.

迎春治耒耜
候雨辟菑畬

I welcomed spring from behind my plow,
Waited for rain to open the fields.

策杖田头立
躬亲课仆夫

Out in the fields, leaning on my staff,
I'd show the workers what I wanted done.

吾闻老农言
为稼慎在初

I heard an old peasant saying,
"Careful planted is best begun."

所施不卤莽
其报必有馀

We chose good soil, kept it free of weeds,
Knowing it would pay us back in full.

上求奉王税
下望备家储

First we prayed to have enough for taxes.
Then we hoped for enough to store away.

安得放慵惰
拱手而曳裾

Contentedly, I gave up laziness,
Bowed my head, and put on farmer's clothes.

学农未为鄙
亲友勿笑余

Farming craft is nothing to despise.
No one that I knew made fun of me.

更待明年后
自拟执犁锄

Just wait for this time next year,
I plan to come and plow and hoe again.

其三

Part Three

三十为近臣
腰间鸣佩玉

I became a courtier at thirty
And hung a seal of jade upon my belt.

四十为野夫
田中学锄谷

I became a country boy at forty,
Learning to hoe crops out in the fields.

何言十年内
变化如此速

Who could have said in these ten years
Change would have come to me this fast?

此理固是常
穷通相倚伏

This truth is truly constant:
Poverty and mastery are bound as one.

为鱼有深水
为鸟有高木

I am like a fish in this deep water.
Or like a bird up in a great tall tree.

何必守一方
窘然自牵束

Why should I preserve convention,
Pulling, ill at ease, at my own leash?

化吾足为马
吾因以行陆

I've almost turned myself into a horse.
It's enough now just to walk the land.

化吾手为弹
吾因以求肉

My hands are rough and calloused.
It's enough now just to gnaw meat off the bone.

形骸为异物
委顺心犹足

My body is strange to me now.
Yielding to my heart is all I need.

幸得且归农
安知不为福

I am fortunate in returning to the fields.
But my peace of mind does not come from luck.

况吾行欲老
瞥若风前烛

I think I'll keep at this until I'm old,
When suddenly a wind blows out my candle.

孰能俄顷间
将心系荣辱

Who can in a moment's breadth
Lead his heart outside of all convention?

-- 白居易


废话

This poem is from 812, when Bai Juyi is mourning his mother along the Wei River. So he isn't just playing rustic poet in his hut. He's farming. And while he does have servants, he is walking behind his own plow and wielding his own hoe.

That he doesn't keep at farming till he's old doesn't mean he didn't want to. Bai Juyi is a court official and his life is not entirely his own.

Index