孟郊诗

Poems of Meng Jiao


Index

达士

Becoming Official


四时如逝水
百川皆东波
青春去不还
白发镊更多

The four seasons drain away
And all the rivers surge east.
Youth leaves me, never to return and
Grey hairs grow faster than I can pluck them.

达人识元化
变愁为高歌
倾产取一醉
富者奈贫何

Wise men know all the changes:
How to turn sadness into boisterous song,
How to answer failure with a good long drunk,
And that the rich can't help us poor.

君看土中宅
富贵无偏颇

But they can see that in our mansions of dust,
Our riches and honor are untainted.

-- 孟郊


废话

And so, at forty or thereabouts, Meng Jiao passes his imperial exams with about as much enthusiasm as any of us expected. He has the usual Tang horror of grey hair, the usual poet's esteem for wine, and has put his long-treasured youth to rest. Still, I doubt he's actually a grown-up now who will fit right in with all the other grown-ups.


Index