Du Fu
 "A SONG OF MY CARES WHEN GOING FROM THE CAPITAL TO FENG-XIAN"
Translation by Stephen Owen

A man of Du-ling in commoner's clothes, the older he grows, the more foolish his fancies.
So naive in all that he swore to become!— he secretly likened himself to Hou Ji and Xie.1
He proved at last too large to be useful, white-haired now, and willing to bear privation.
When the coffin closes, all will be settled;
yet these goals ever look for fulfillment.
I worry for our folk to the end of my years, I sigh, and my guts are in turmoil within.
I earn sneers from old men, once fellow students, yet I sing out loudly, and with fierce intensity.
I do have aims to live on rivers and lakes, there to see off my days, aloof and serene.
But I've lived in an age of a Yao or a Shun.2 and could not bear to withdraw forever.
Yet now the Halls of State are fully complete, in the building's structure, no gaps at all.3
Like sunflower and pulse, I bend to the sun— truly hard to rob a thing of its nature.
Then I look around on this ant-breed of men, who can only go seeking their own little holes.
Why should they aspire to be Leviathan planning rashly to sprawl in the deeps of the sea?4
Hereby I am aware of the pattern of life, and am ashamed to alone strive for favor.
I have gone on thus stubbornly until now— I could not bear to just sink to the dust.
But at last I'm chagrined before Chao-fu, Xu You,5 men unable to alter their firm resolve.
I drink deeply to banish these thoughts for the while, then burst into such an unhappy song.
It was year's end, all plants were dying, and the high hills had cracked in sharp winds.
The royal avenues lay sunken in shadow as the traveler set forth at midnight.
The frosts were harsh, my coat's belt snapped, my fingers were stiff, I could not tie it back.
At the break of dawn I passed Mount Li, the imperial couch on its towering crest.6
Ill-omened auroras stuffed a cold sky, and I tramped along slippery valley slopes.
Vapors surged swelling from Jasper Pool, where the royal guardsmen rub and clack.
There lord and courtiers linger in pleasures, music stirs, thunders through empty space.
All granted baths there have long hat ribbons,7 no short tunics join in their feasts.
Yet silk bolts apportioned in the royal court came first from the homes of poor women.
Whips were used on their menfolk, and taxes were gathered to present to the palace.
His Majesty's kindness in baskets for courtiers is, in fact, to bring life to the principalities.
If the courtiers scorn this ultimate rule, it is not that Our Lord throws these things away.
Many officers now are filling the court, it is fitting that kindly men tremble in fear.
Moreover, I've heard golden plate of the Household is now all in the homes of the Marriage Kin.8
In the midst of great halls goddesses dance, diaphanous film flares from marble flesh.
There are cloaks of sable to warm the guests, as sad notes of flutes follow harps' clear tones.
Guests are urged to taste camel-hoof soup, frosty oranges weigh on the sweet tangerines.
Crimson gates reek with meat and wine, while on the streets, bones of the frozen dead.
Grimness and grandeur, a mere foot apart, so upsetting I cannot continue to tell.
My northbound cart came where the Jing meets the Wei, at the official crossing I again changed my track.
Masses of waters came down from the west, looming high as far as the eye could see.
It seemed as if Kong-tong Mountain had come, I feared it would knock and break pillars of sky.
We were lucky the bridge had not yet collapsed, yet the sounds of its crossbeams creaked and groaned.
Travelers reached hands to help each other over, if the river grew broader, we could not cross.
I had lodged my wife off in a different county, ten mouths to protect from the winds and snow.
Who could go long without looking to them? I hoped now to share their hunger and thirst.
When I came in the gate I heard crying out:
my young son had just died of hunger.
I could not suppress a wail of my own when the whole lane was sobbing.
What troubles me is in being a father my not getting food caused this infant's death.
I could not have known that before the harvest such calamity would come to our poverty.
All my life I have been exempt from taxes, and my name is not registered for conscription.
Considering what bitter things happened to me, ordinary people must be truly in dire straits.
I brood silent on those who lost livelihoods, then think of our troops on far campaigns.
Reasons to be troubled are as great as South Mountain, a chaos that no one can grasp.

1. Hou ji and Xie were ancient ministers and also ancestors of the royal houses of Shang and Zhou
2. It was conventional politeness to speak of the reigning emperor, in this case Xuan-zong, as a sage-king, like Yao or Shun in high antiquity.
3. That is, there are enough talented men to fill the necessary posts in the government and he, Du Fu, is not needed.
4. In this context, Leviathan, the monstrously large sea creature, seems to be a figure for grand vision and high ambitions.
5. Chao-fu ("Nest-father") and Xu You were exemplary recluses who refused the reins of government when they were offered.
6. This was Hua-qing Palace, the pleasure resort of Xuan-zong and Yang the Prized Consort.
7. The primary attraction of Hua-qing Palace was its hot springs. Those with "long hat ribbons" are, of course, the great officers of the court.
8. The reference here is to the Yangs, the kin of the Prized Consort, who took every op­portunity to enrich themselves while the consort enjoyed Xuan-zong's favor.