白居易诗
Poems of Bai Juyi
Index
惜牡丹花二首
Tending the Peonies
翰林院北厅花下作 |
By the North Hall at Brushwood Academy |
惆怅阶前红牡丹 晚来唯有两枝残 明朝风起应吹尽 夜惜衰红把火看 |
By the dreary steps, red peonies. Evening and he finds two broken branches. Tomorrow morning's breezes will find them gone. Tonight, he tenderly trims them by torchlight. |
新昌窦给事宅南亭花下作 |
Planting at the Official Residence in Nanjing |
寂寞萎红低向雨 离披破艳散随风 晴明落地犹惆怅 何况飘零泥土中 |
Lonely red blossoms, drooping in the rain. Beautiful and broken and dancing in the wind. Those fallen in the sunlight are especially sad. First drifting and homeless, now trapped in the mud. |
-- 白居易
废话
It is 809 and Bai Juyi has been appointed to the Brushwood Academy in Chang'an. That's "brush" as in "writing brush," Hanlin Yuan. That explains what he is doing by the North Hall. As for the residence at Nanjing, I suspect that he has taken time off, possibly sick time, and is travelling to visit friends and family. Except on one notable occasion, late in life, Bai Juyi never worked hard at anything except poetry. And any excuse not to be at work was good enough for him not to be there.