白居易诗
Poems of Bai Juyi
Index
两朱阁
Twin Crimson Towers
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刺佛寺浸多也 |
(On visiting Buddha's temple after the floods.) |
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两朱阁 南北相对起 借问何人家 贞元双帝子 |
Two red-roofed towers Facing each other, north and south. May I as who lived here? They were two loyal sons of the emperor. |
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帝子吹箫双得仙 五云飘飖飞上天 第宅亭台不将去 化为佛寺在人间 |
Princes who played the pipes as if immortal, Like Wu Yun floating on his wings up in the sky. When forced to never leave their private towers, They turned them into temples, to regain the world of men. |
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妆阁伎楼何寂静 柳似舞腰池似镜 花落黄昏悄悄时 不闻歌吹闻钟磬 |
Beautiful prospects, artful towers, how peaceful they were. Willows like graceful dancers, ponds like mirrors, Flowers falling in the silences of night's approach. No more songs, no more flutes. Only gongs and chimes. |
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寺门敕榜金字书 尼院佛庭宽有馀 青苔明月多闲地 比屋疲人无处居 |
At their gates, gold-lettered, an imperial blessing. A wide and spacious hall for holy nuns. Moss and bright moonlight covering the grounds Where there were rooms for the homeless and the weary. |
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忆昨平阳宅初置 吞并平人几家地 仙去双双作梵宫 渐恐人间尽为寺 |
Thinking back, in quiet sunshine, to their creation, Many common houses were torn down to make this place. Princes who create a Buddha's palace may be immortal. But within this human world, their goodness -- all but gone. |
-- 白居易
废话
This poem is the first part of the thirtieth poem in Bai Juyi's publication of New Lyric Poetry. So it's from around 815. If we take it at face value -- and with Bai Juyi, I think we can -- this is his simple record of a visit to two crimson-tiled towers. They began as the confinements of two princes, perhaps spared during a change of dynasty. The princes turned them into a single temple. And time has turned them into flooded ruins.
Bai Juyi looks at two towers built with imperial riches, sanctified into temples with more imperial riches. And by the end of the poem, he can't help but think of the poor common people who lost their homes in the first land-clearing for these towers. Goodness, for Bai Juyi, isn't something you can create with money. Not even if you spend it on homeless shelters. After the floods of time, the shelters are gone. And the homeless remain. I wonder if there were thoughts of justice in his mind, never put to paper. Thoughts which would have required a re-making of the world into a place without anyone homeless. Dangerous thoughts, in a world of money.