孟郊诗

Poems of Meng Jiao


Index

西斋养病夜怀多感因呈上从叔子云

Convalescing at Xizhai, I am overcome with emotion at night because of a letter from my brother-in-law.


远客夜衣薄
厌眠待鸡鸣
一床空月色
四壁秋蛩声

Distant wanderer, in skimpy pajamas,
Despises sleep and waits upon cock's-crow.
Entire bed bathed in empty moonlight.
Autumn's crickets chirp from all four walls.

守淡遗众俗
养疴念馀生
方全君子拙
耻学小人明

Nuturing my strength, I leave the common herd.
As I improve, I think of what life remains.
All-in-all, officialdom is crude and feeble.
I'm ashamed to have studied petty things.

蚊蚋亦有时
羽毛各有成
如何骐骥迹
踡跼未能行

Even pesky insects have their moment.
Every hair and feather has its fullness.
But even the best of horses couldn't run
If it were cramped and bound like me.

西北有平路
运来无相轻

Xibei has good roads. With luck,
I will arrive without any problems.

-- 孟郊


废话

I've seen this kind of poem before. Meng Jiao gets a letter from his brother-in-law. I assume this is a brother of his first wife. Otherwise, he's remarried now and older. Anyway, the letter makes him feel some things. So he writes a poem in response to these feelings, puts a normal response to the letter at the end, and manages to save a copy for posterity. You know, just in case it survives for fourteen hundred years ....

"Best of horses" is actually Qili, the name of a legendary best horse.


Index