Within the Gorges there is no lack of men;
    They are people one meets, not people one cares for. 
    At my front door guests also arrive;
    They are people one sits with, not people one knows. 
    When I look up, there are only clouds and trees;
    When I look down—­only my wife and child. 
    I sleep, eat, get up or sit still;
    Apart from that, nothing happens at all. 
    But beyond the city Hsiao the hermit dwells;
    And with him at least I find myself at ease. 
    For he can drink a full flagon of wine
    And is good at reciting long-line poems. 
    Some afternoon, when the clerks have all gone home,
    At a season when the path by the river bank is dry,
    I beg you, take up your staff of bamboo-wood
    And find your way to the parlour of the Government House.

[1] Nos. 37, 38, 39, and 40 were written when the poet was Governor of a remote part of Ssechuan,—­in the extreme west of China.

[38] TO LI CHIEN

[A.D. 818]

    The province I govern is humble and remote;
    Yet our festivals follow the Courtly Calendar. 
    At rise of day we sacrificed to the Wind God,
    When darkly, darkly, dawn glimmered in the sky. 
    Officers followed, horsemen led the way;
    They brought us out to the wastes beyond the town,
    Where river mists fall heavier than rain,
    And the fires on the hill leap higher than the stars.

    Suddenly I remembered the early levees at Court
    When you and I galloped to the Purple Yard. 
    As we walked our horses up Dragon Tail Street
    We turned our heads and gazed at the Southern Hills. 
    Since we parted, both of us have been growing old;
    And our minds have been vexed by many anxious cares. 
    Yet even now I fancy my ears are full
    Of the sound of jade tinkling on your bridle-straps.

[39] THE SPRING RIVER

[A.D. 820]

    Heat and cold, dusk and dawn have crowded one upon the other;
    Suddenly I find it is two years since I came to Chung-chou. 
    Through my closed doors I hear nothing but the morning and evening
        drum;
    From my upper windows all I see is the ships that come and go.[1]
    In vain the orioles tempt me with their song to stray beneath
        the flowering trees;
    In vain the grasses lure me by their colour to sit beside the pond. 
    There is one thing and one alone I never tire of watching—­
    The spring river as it trickles over the stones and babbles past
        the rocks.

[1] “The Emperor Saga of Japan [reigned A.D. 810-23] one day quoted to his Minister, Ono no Takamura, the couplet: 

    ’Through my closed doors I hear nothing but the morning and evening
        drum;
    From my upper windows in the distance I see ships that come and go.’