Po Chu-I

I enter the court
Through the middle gate—
And my sleeve is wet with tears.
...

Sent as a present from Annam—
A red cockatoo.
Colored like the peach-tree blossom,
Speaking with the speech of men.
...

“Those who speak know nothing;
Those who know are silent.”
These words, as I am told,
...

I could have a job, but am too lazy to choose it;
I have got land, but am too lazy to farm it.
My house leaks; I am too lazy to mend it.
...

In the land of Tao-chou
Many of the people are dwarfs;
The tallest of them never grow to more than three feet.
...

When I was almost forty
I had a daughter whose name was Golden Bells.
Now it is just a year since she was born;
...

White billows and huge waves block the river crossing;
Wherever I go, danger and difficulty; whatever I do, failure.
...

Ruined and ill—a man of two score;
Pretty and guileless—a girl of three.
Not a boy—but still better than nothing:
...

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

No moon
To light my way upon the stair,
Cold comfort
...

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

an evening sitting under
the eaves of the pines
at night sleeping
in Bamboo Lodge
...

My lute set aside
on the little table
Lazily I meditate
on cherishing feelings
...

Deep the waters of the Black Pool, colored like ink;
They say a Holy Dragon lives there, whom men have never seen.
Beside the Pool they have bu ...
...

At Hsin-fëng—an old man—four-score and eight;
The hair on his head and the hair of his eyebrows—white as the new snow.
...

There came an officer knocking by night at my door
In a loud voice demanding grain-tribute.
My house-servants dared not wait till the morning,
...

here's my snowy crown
time's tinted decrepitude
there's the frost in the courtyard
autumn's glittery breath
...

You were a pearl
In the palm of my hand,
My tiny baby boy.
...

The red fruit of the lichi
Is as precious as the pearl.
...

For fifteen long years,
Times without number
I have come
...