白居易诗
Poems of Bai Juyi
Index
欲与元八卜邻先有是赠
For Yuan Eight, Who is Choosing New Neighbors, a Present
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平生心迹最相亲 欲隐墙东不为身 |
All our lives, we've wanted to be best friends. My hiding by the eastern wall had nothing to do with you. |
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明月好同三径夜 绿杨宜作两家春 |
This waxing moon gives us three nights of light and These green poplars are just right for a joyful meeting. |
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每因暂出犹思伴 岂得安居不择邻 |
Now you have every reason to think about friends. Who can choose the right home without choosing neighbors? |
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何独终身数相见 子孙长作隔墙人 |
Why be lonely when we could see each other every day? No need to let this wall forever split our families. |
-- 白居易
废话
Yuan Eight is Yuan Zhen's older brother Yuan Zongjian (元宗简). He and Bai Juyi have been exchanging poems for almost a decade at this point in 810. It is interesting that Bai Juyi describes himself as hiding where he lives this early in his life. He hasn't even gotten himself into any trouble at this point. But he has married into the perilously political Yang family. So perhaps that has already made him cautious.
Another thing to think of is how we come by this poem. It's a poem he probably knocked off one evening and sent to his friend. But it comes to us because Bai Juyi included it in the volumes of poetry he preserved. So he made an extra copy before he sent it to Yuan Eight. And he valued it, or the moment surrounding it, enough to later preserve it.