Friday, March 20, 2009

A poem for the first day of spring - We had a drinking party to admire the peonies

Drinking with Friends Amongst the Blooming Peonies

We had a drinking party
To admire the peonies.
I drank cup after cup till
I was drunk. Then to my shame
I heard the flowers whisper,
“What are we doing, blooming
For these old alcoholics?”

Liu Yu Hsi (772-842)

Tr. Kenneth Rexroth, Love and the Turning Year: 100 More Poems from the Chinese

Posted by Amateur Reader (Tom) at 9:00 AM
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 20, 2009 at 3:43 PM

    I love it.
    dad

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sparkling SquirrelMarch 21, 2009 at 10:34 AM

    Fabulous! Only one or two of my six peony parties ended like this, but there were several times I'm sure they were wondering.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Meytal RadzinskiMarch 21, 2009 at 3:29 PM

    That's a rather lovely poem.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BookphiliaMarch 26, 2009 at 2:27 PM

    That's excellent!

    ReplyDelete

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