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.

Index