白居易诗

Poems of Bai Juyi


Index

轻肥

Wealthy


意气骄满路
鞍马光照尘
借问何为者
人称是内臣

A spirit of pride fills the air as
Dressed-out horses shine in their own dust.
May I ask who these people are?
Men answer they are courtiers and eunuchs.

朱绂皆大夫
紫绶或将军
夸赴军中宴
走马去如云

Vermillion ribbons mark the senior ministers
And those with purple must be generals.
Their boastful manner shows a love of war.
Swiftly they pass, departing like the clouds.

罇罍溢九酝
水陆罗八珍
果掰洞庭橘
脍切天池鳞

Their pots of wine, fermented, overflowing.
Eight treasures steam upon their plates.
They peel and eat the oranges from the courtyard
And thinly slice their fish from mountain lakes.

食饱心自若
酒酣气益振
是岁江南旱
衢州人食人

Stomachs full, their minds are now at peace.
But still they drink, out in the bracing air.
Here after years of drought, south of the river,
Our happy masters feed upon us all.

-- 白居易


废话

This is another poem, like A Serious Entreaty, from Bai Juyi's Songs of Qin. So it was written around 809 and is part of his polite criticism of court and throne. This could be a straight "translation" of the Qin poem on Bai Juyi's part. "South of the river" in Qin times would be south of the Yellow River and, in Tang times, south of the Yangzi. All else, wealthy people being what they are (Wealthy patron to waitress, as overheard in a fancy restaurant in Rockport, Maine: "This is America! I can have anything I want!") , remains the same. Oh, except for maybe the "eight treasures." These are the eight most delicious foods in the Chinese cuisine. Tastes must have changed in the nine hundred years separating the Qin and the Tang. Too bad I can find a list for each.


Index