Bai Juyi Poems

For fifteen long years,
Times without number
I have come
To see the red almond-blossoms
...

Good friends,
Why waste your time in wailing
And in sympathy for me?

Surely, from time to time,
...

North of Solitary Mountain Temple
and west of Chia Pavilion
the water's surface is flattened
by the wet feet of clouds.
...

I have got patronage, but am too lazy to use it;
I have got land, but am too lazy to farm it.
My house leaks; I am too lazy to mend it.
My clothes are torn; I am too lazy to darn them.
...

At dawn I rode to escort the Doctors of Art;
In the eastern quarter the sky was still grey.
I said to myself, 'You have started far too soon,'
But horses and coaches already thronged the road.
...

Around my garden the little wall is low;
In the bailiff's lodge the lists are seldom checked.
I am ashamed to think we were not always kind;
I regret your labours, that will never be repaid.
...

Tears utmost gauze cloth dream not succeed
Night deep before palace press song sound
Red cheek not old favour first cut
Slant lean on smoke cover sit arrive brightness
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Tillers of the soil have few idle months;
In the fifth month their toil is double-fold.
A south-wind visits the fields at night:
Suddenly the hill is covered with yellow corn.
...

The crane from the shore standing at the top of the steps;
The moon on the pool seen at the open door;
Where these are, I made my lodging-place
And for two nights could not turn away.
...

Last year, when I lay sick,
I vowed
I'd never touch a drop again
As long as I should live.
...