白居易诗

Poems of Bai Juyi


Index

庾楼晓望

Daybreak on Yu Tower


独凭朱槛立凌晨
山色初明水色新
竹雾晓笼衔岭月
频风暖送过江春

Alone, I lean on a red railing in the dawn.
First rays touch the mountains, make the river new,
Embrace bamboo fogs , and touch a mountain moon.
Warm winds cross and cross a river in spring flood.

子城阴处犹残雪
衙鼓声前未有尘
三百年来庾楼上
曾经多少望乡人

Snow melts quickly from the bastion by the gates.
From the courthouse, drums precede the news.
Yu Tower has stood here three centuries long
And greeted how many home-gazing men?

-- 白居易


废话

It is 815 and Bai Juyi is in exile in Sichuan following his ill-timed critique of government competence. Live and learn. Exile, in general, seems good for Bai Juyi. He never succumbs to malaria. He hardly works. And he finds plenty of time to stand on towers in the dawn for the purpose of fueling his poetry.

Index