白居易诗

Poems of Bai Juyi


Index

江楼夕望招客

Teasing my Guest, as We Gaze from River Tower


海天东望夕茫茫
山势川形阔复长
灯火万家城四畔
星河一道水中央

Gazing east across the lake, the evening is immense.
Mountain forms and river flats are the only distinctions.
Lamplight shines from all four quarters of the town.
And the Milky Way glitters from both sky and lake.

风吹古木晴天雨
月照平沙夏夜霜
能就江楼消暑否
比君茅舍校清凉

Wind whistles through old trees as sky turns to rain.
Moon shines on white sand, like frost on summer night.
Only on River Tower can we escape the heat.
Isn't it far better here than in your poet's hut?

-- 白居易


废话

It is 823 and Bai Juyi is governor of Hangzhou. I suspect Bai is on River Tower with Yuan Zhen who came once to visit him here. The two were feted like the poetic celebrities they were. No friendship was more famous, even with the common people, than their's.

Index